Bangladesh coach Pybus yet to sign BCB contract

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has said it is concerned that Richard Pybus, who took over as the national team's head coach in May, hasn't yet signed a contract with the board. The BCB took up the matter on Sunday after it came to the media's notice.

The board's cricket operations committee, in a meeting, asked the acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury to communicate with Pybus, who returned to South Africa last week. He had given the national players a rest before playing in the first-class competition, the National Cricket League, which was supposed to start on October 14 and run till the Eid holidays later this month. But since the NCL's scheduled start has been delayed, the board now expects Pybus to start the national team's training programme earlier.

"He [Richard Pybus] has been asked to come to Bangladesh and sign the contract as soon as possible as there might be legal complications otherwise," said Jalal Yunus, chairman of the BCB media committee. "As of now, our main aim is to start the national camp for the players. For that we'll need Pybus to send us a training programme as soon as possible. Our immediate concern is the West Indies tour."

Meanwhile, the BCB has extended spin bowling consultant Saqlain Mushtaq's tenure till December. The spinner had initially joined the national team in July on a three month contract. This means that Saqlain will be part of the coaching set-up through the series against West Indies in November.