"They cannot think anything on their own because the board scolds them" - Russell Domingo opens up on Bangladesh's misfortunes in T20 cricket
Russell Domingo claims that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is responsible for the stunt in growth when it comes to the team's progress in the shortest format.
The team walked out of the 2021 T20 World Cup without a single win in the group stage and have only gone on to win two matches since then.
The management recently made a huge call by appointing former Australian assistant coach Sridharan Sriram to take over the Bangladesh T20 squad until the 2022 T20 World Cup. As a result, Domingo's responsibilities are limited to the ODI and Test squad.
Sridharan Sriram, the Technical Consultant of Bangladesh Cricket team seems so happy at Home of Cricket. https://t.co/2jtBf42L0F
Opining that cricketers are constantly given instructions by the board, Domingo told leading Bangladeshi Daily, Prothom Alo:
"In the last eight to 10 years, cricketers did not get this kind of coaching and they cannot think anything on their own because the board scolds them and the director of coaching (Khaled Mahmud) scolds them and they were told in every step what they need to do and this is the biggest challenge of Bangladesh cricket because cricketers cannot think anything on their own,"
BCB holds strained relationships with a select group of players such as Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan. The veteran batter was upset with the board for not clarifying his status for T20 cricket and chose to retire from the format altogether.
Shakib, on the other hand, was asked to cut ties with a sponsor if he wished to represent the country again.
"All the time I was told that you need to scream at them" - Russell Domingo
Since the culmination of the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh have gone on to lose T20 bilateral series against Pakistan, West Indies, and Zimbabwe.
The management recently appointed Shakib Al Hasan as the captain in the shortest format amid their injury crisis to seek a change in fortunes.
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Opining that higher authorities wanted him to be a little rough on players, Domingo said:
"You can ask the cricketers I wanted to have a calm atmosphere in the dressing room and wanted to develop cricketers with clarity but so many people are making noise from close quarters that it was not possible. "
He added:
"All the time I was told that you need to scream at them and you have to be strict and that is the way to deal with the cricketer and I am sure earlier coaches were like that but they hardly did anything in T20 because Bangladesh won only one game in T20s and I went with them in one World Cup,"
Bangladesh will kickstart their Asia Cup 2022 campaign with a clash against Afghanistan on August 30 at the Sharjah Cricket Ground.
Will Bangladesh be able to muster a strong response with a memorable Asia Cup campaign? Let us know what you think.