Kirsten likely to be new consultant for Tigers

The Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan said on Wednesday that they are in talks with South African Gary Kirsten for a wide-ranging consultancy role.   Kirsten was tipped as a probable candidate for the head coach role of Tigers after it was vacated by the resignation of Chandika Hathurusinghe but his assignments in the franchise-based Twenty20 league have prompted the BCB to think otherwise.

According to Nazmul, they are in talks with him about a more short-term role as he has two other coaching contracts probability of joining Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League as well as his stint as the head coach of Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.

'We were talking to Gary Kirsten for a consultant's role,' Nazmul told reporters at Dhaka on Wednesday. 'He is booked up to February, in the Big Bash. He is involved with the IPL and Big Bash, which is why he is not interested to be the head coach. If we permitted him to work in those leagues, then he may have agreed with us. But we can't let our head coach go like that, which is what we have decided,' said Nazmul. 

''He is available in the time outside his other roles. At this point, both sides are interested in the [consultancy] role. He will have an overall role in the development of Bangladesh cricket. It might be for six months, but it is hard to pinpoint these things without talking to him first. He is probably coming after February,'' he added.

The BCB president added that they are not in a hurry to appoint the head coach as they are considering various aspects before signing the agreement and announced that Kirsten can be instrumental in signing coaches for various spots to develop country's cricket, if they can inked the deal with the South African.  

 ''Surely we are on the back foot as Chandika Hathurusingha's departure has been a blow,'' said Nazmul. 'You can't just take any coach, but someone who fits our environment and mentality. Bangladesh has reached a level which requires us to be thoughtful about bringing a quality coach,'' he said.

'Not much chance of a trial and error; we cannot change much in our team. We are not in any hurry. Even he [Kirsten] would help us figure out what coach to hire for our national team, high-performance side and the Under-19s,'' said Nazmul.

Nazmul hinted that they can announce the name of their next batting coach as early as this week after it was vacated by the departure of Thilian Samaraweera, who is now doing a similar job with the Sri Lankan national team.

BCB is talking with the former South Africa batsman Neil McKenzie along with Zimbabwean Grant Flower and Sri Lankan Hashan Tillakaratne for the role with the McKenzie tipped to be the front runner.

'We are very close to announcing someone as a batting consultant. We wanted someone full-time but the person we've chosen is of a higher level,' said Nazmul.  'We don't need a full-time batting consultant. He will be here ahead of every series and when there are long breaks,'' said Nazmul without elaborating further.

-Atif Azam, AA