Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has been suspended by its cricket board (BCB) on disciplinary grounds. His suspension is for 48 hours and after that, will be terminated immediately. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has also served him a show-cause notice. Hathurusinghe has been accused of slapping a player during the ODI World Cup in India last year.
BCB president Faruque Ahmed has also stated that Hathurusinghe took more leaves than agreed as per his contract. "Hathurusinghe has two counts of misconduct. First is about an assault on a player. Secondly, he took too many leaves, more than what was in his contract," Ahmed said according to ESPNCricinfo.
BCB has appointed Phil Simmons as the head coach of the team in an interim capacity till the 2025 Champions Trophy. His first assignment as the head coach will be the Test series against South Africa at home.
As for Hathurusinghe, he was appointed the Bangladesh head coach in February 2023 for the second time. However, not many were in favour of the same and shortly after taking over the position of BCB president in August this year, Faruque Ahmed had said that he shouldn't continue at the helm of the cricket team.
Chandika Hathurusinghe was instrumental in Bangladesh's rise during his first stint but his return wasn't memorable. The team put up underwhelming performances in the ODI World Cup in India last year and in the T20 World Cup this year. His best performance came on the Pakistan tour recently when Bangladesh defeated the home team 2-0 in a Test series. It was their first overseas series win in 15 years.
Unfortunately, his stint ended on a sour note as BCB suspended and terminated him even as Bangladesh lost two Tests and three T20Is on the India tour which will remain his last at the top position.
