Sujon ready to work with national team

Bangladesh team's technical director Khaled Mahmud Sujon said that he is ready to work with the national team if he is asked to do so making a complete U-turn from his previous stance as far as guiding the national team is concerned.

Mahmud had earlier stated that he had lost interest to work with Bangladesh cricket team following the media reports targeted against him in recent times after the host came up with a disastrous performance. Mahmud had been on the receiving end since being appointed as team director considering that he is also involved in several other capacities in Bangladesh's cricket landscape.

Mahmud is currently the chairman of BCB game development committee while being involved in coaching capacities at different clubs and franchises. Prior to his appointment as team director, a section of media labeled it as a conflict of interest. The BCB president also came hard against Mahmud as he announced that their immediate priority lies in getting a head coach as he believed the current team management were unable to perform their duty as per expectation.

Mahmud was appointed as the Bangladesh team's technical director following the unexpected departure of Chandika Hathurusinghe and his position entitled him to make the last call regarding the plan of action sketched to be followed by Tigers in the home series against Sri Lanka after the tri-nation that also involved   Zimbabwe.
'I never say no whenever they [BCB] give me any duty,' Mahmud told reporters when asked whether he is keen to work in the same capacity in the upcoming Nidhas Cup. Mahmud added that he is apologetic for his public outburst during the series as it was totally an emotional eruption.

'There was so much talk regarding the series that I could not control my emotions and I overreacted,' said Mahmud. 'I didn't say anything to hurt anybody, I spoke out of emotion…I am really sorry for that. Definitely the media have had a huge role in Bangladesh cricket,' he said.

However, Mahmud refused to accept that they had made too many experiment in the series that was believed to be a major reason of Tigers downfall in the Twenty20 series as he believes that T20Is are the best platform for young players to gain international exposure.

Sri Lanka two-match series comfortably leaving behind their eight-match loss on a row and Tigers looked totally out of sort in both the games as they were unable to put up any sort of fight. 'I don't agree that we experimented with too many players during the last series. Everybody came [into the team] on the basis of their performances,' said Mahmud.

'Every new player who got a chance in the last T20I series was exciting and a future player. We have a very busy international schedule in the coming days so you may have to fight with injuries as well as think about your new talents. And we can only accommodate them in T20Is,' he added.On the other hand, Mahmud added that they will be looking for experience as they are heading for Sri Lanka to play Nidhas Cup, a T-20 tournament comprising host and India. 

-Atif Azam, AA