Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) suspended Chandika Hathurusinghe from the head coach position after a humiliating Test and T20I series loss against India. Shano-led side were whitewashed in the Tests and T20Is by massive margins.
Chandika Hathurusinghe was suspended on disciplinary grounds. He will be terminated after 48 hours of serving suspension. BCB investigated the allegation from Bangladesh's ODI World Cup campaign in 2023 when a player alleged that Hathu had slapped him.
"Hathurusinghe has two counts of misconduct," BCB president Faruque Ahmed said. "First is about an assault on a player. Secondly, he took too many leaves, more than what was in his contract " quoted ESPN cricinfo
BCB appointed Phil Simmons as their interim head coach with the contract set to run till the 2025 Champions Trophy. Former West Indies cricketer Simmons had previously coached Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and West Indies. His immediate assignment will be the two-match Test series at home against South Africa this month.
His exit marks an underwhelming end to his brief stint as Bangladesh coach with debacles in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Bangladesh Cricket's team's last outing
Bangladesh recently travelled to India for the two Test match series followed by three T20Is where Men in Blue defeated them 2-0 and 3-0 respectively. Veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan also announced his retirement in the same series. Earlier, they travelled to Pakistan for two Test match series where they registered their first-ever Test series win against the Men in Green. Bangladesh defeated Pakistan 2-0 in two Test match series.