New Delhi: The senior men’s Bangladesh cricket team will now be helmed by the new head coach Phil Simmons who has replaced the sacked Chandika Hathurusinghe. Simmons’ first big assignment is to coach the Tigers for their upcoming two-match home Test series against South Africa, On Saturday, he held his first press conference as the new head coach and said that he is eyeing to make the team focus on cricket and leaving behind all the drama that the team has seen lately.
The team currently prepares for the first Test which is scheduled to begin on October 21 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Simmons’ arrival happens at a controversial time, following the sacking of Hathurasinghe as the head coach and the withdrawal of Shakib Al Hasan for home games which surely takes the team’s attention away from cricket towards all the off-field controversies.
“That’s the big part of our job over the next few days, to make sure the focus is on the cricket, and not on the outside of cricket. We can control how we prepare for Monday, that’s how we are trying to get the team to focus,” Simmons addressed the media at his first official press conference as the head coach at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“The good thing is we have a very important Test match to prepare for. We win the next few Tests, and we are in contention for the final (WTC). My first port of call is cricket, and about getting the squad ready for Monday. The last two days (training) have been brilliant. We have to try to leave out the confusion that’s around the cricket, and concentrate on preparing for Monday,” Simmons added.
Moments from the first press conference of Bangladesh Cricket Team Head Coach, Phil Simmons.#BCB #Cricket #BANvSA #WTC25 #TestCricket pic.twitter.com/lM96sTPZU0
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) October 19, 2024
How Simmons landed coach job?
Not many must be aware that Simmons was earlier interviewed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in 2018 but couldn’t get through. He added that it wasn’t a difficult decision for him to take the role when offered by the board. Hathurusinghe was notably axed for his alleged assault of a player during the 2023 ODI World Cup and for taking more time off than he was permitted in his contract.
Simmons added that the interest to take up the role also came from seeing the quality of the young players who according to him handled themselves well against Pakistan. The 61-year-old said that it wasn’t a hard decision for him as with the young players, Tests, and ODIs are involved as well.
“All international coaching jobs are hot seats. Bangladesh is different. Pakistan is different. For me, it is a case of getting the players to play and enjoy everything and win matches. The seat is not hot,” Simmons said.
The second and final Test of the series, part of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), will be played at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram from October 29.
