New coach and board must adjust and adapt

Chandika Hathurusingha has become the head coach of a Test team, in itself a major opportunity to put up his value as a coach. While on the job, he will be able to access the built-in advantage of Bangladesh cricket, which is to create history by beating higher-ranked sides in Tests and ODIs as well as bringing visible improvements to a developing cricket team.

Despite reasonable coaching experience, handling a team of this stature and following will take some time to adjust to, and it should be no different for Hathurusingha. Interestingly, adjustment is also what the Bangladesh Cricket Board has to do. Having seen a bitter end to the promising Shane Jurgensen's reign as head coach, they will have to show more patience with Hathurusingha. He will come with new ideas and fresh thinking, and that has to be given time to mature.

Results are going to be in demand but should not alone define him, as was the case when board directors cast doubt over Jurgensen's future or when Richard Pybus fell out with them during his short reign. Jurgensen was hardly noticed when Bangladesh were playing well, but when wins dried up in the space of three months, the BCB directors suggested the need for new men in charge. It was far too soon to question a coach, but this experience and the fact that their last three coaches did not see the end of their contracts should be suggestion enough on how to approach the new man.

They have made a good start, so to speak. The committee's five members have stuck their necks out in suggesting his name and then working hard to get him to agree. Khaled Mahmud, one of the three former captains on the committee, said he was a long-time admirer of Hathurusingha the coach.

"It is not only his Level-4 coaching degree or the fact that Kumar Sangakkara thinks highly of him but what I liked about him is his coaching philosophy and work ethic," Mahmud said. "I have seen him coaching from up close, and I feel he is a good communicator. His coaching experience doesn't have international cricket but I feel he can make it up with his own attributes."

Hathurusingha has been coaching for nine years and has built quite a reputation, so much so that Sangakkara had written a letter to the SLC describing how good he felt Hathurusingha was, and to reconsider him after the fallout of 2010. He has coached Sri Lanka A, UAE and Sydney Thunder and assisted at New South Wales. Regardless of the standard of his coaching experience, he is well regarded in his homeland.

His move to Bangladesh may be viewed as a forceful indictment on the state of affairs at the SLC. That the BCB can pay its coaches more is no surprise, but merely a week ago Hathurusingha had expressed interest in the Sri Lanka job, outlining the allure of working for his home team, in his own land.

Whether he would have been the best candidate for the Sri Lanka job is unclear, but there's no doubt he made a fine candidate. A coach with intimate knowledge of the local systems, who communicated clearly, excelled in his knowledge of technique and strategy, and was already a popular and respected among the players, might have been brought in for discussions with the board. Instead he was kept at arm's length over an ancient scrape.

From Bangladesh's point of view, they would be seeking further improvement as a Test team, more success as an ODI side and greater learning in T20s. Bangladesh's birth as a competitive international team began under Dav Whatmore, developed further with Jamie Siddons, moved along with Stuart Law for less than a year, but hardly went anywhere with Pybus. Jurgensen brought more success in Tests and ODIs, and Hathurusingha will be expected to perform better than his predecessors.

His first look at the team will be during the short ODI series against India, after which he will get two months to prepare the players for West Indies. Tests against Zimbabwe are scheduled, and then the World Cup in Australia. Hathurusingha's intimate knowledge of those conditions will be useful but it will be the Bangladesh players who have to take a few extra steps, having last played there in 2008.

But first, he has to understand what he has to work with in Bangladesh. When asked what a coach has to do to succeed here, Jurgensen said it would have to be someone who can adapt to the local culture, but remain in control and be forceful.

"As a coach, one needs to have the ability to adapt to any situation, whether it is Bangladesh, India or Australia," Jurgensen said. "That team will have a culture, and you have to be able to adapt quickly. It is also important that he is able to relate to a young team.

"Yes, have control and right discipline to the environment but ensuring to adapt. I was here for three years but the players will be here for 10-15 years. That team will have a foundation of a culture and environment. There's an opportunity here to take the team to the next level. It started under Stuart in the Asia Cup and then 2013 had some significant results. The next five years could be exciting, give the opportunity and support for the team and coach."

Adjusting and adapting will be in Hathurusingha's mind the moment he lands in Bangladesh next month. The same applies to his new employers, particularly because this is a time when the winning feeling has to be returned to the Bangladesh team.