DHAKA, Aug 21, 2019 (BSS)-Russell Domingo, the newly appointed head coach of Bangladesh will emphasize on building relations with players and
understand their psychology first as he believes that those aspects are
important to bring out the best of the players.
“My immediate goal is to make some sort of connection with the players, to
understand the players, build some relationships over the next week or two –
I think that’s massively important. Try and gain the players’ trust, see how
the players go about their work. It’s very much an observatory role the next
couple of days, to just see how they go about their business and take some
learning from that,” Domingo said here on Wednesday during his first official
press conference with the Bangladeshi media.
And to understand that the players need to adapt with the cultural changes
for which he is ready as he takes the reign of the sub-continental set-up for
the first time in his career.
”We can’t expect Bangladesh cricket to adapt with us, we’ve got to adapt
to Bangladesh cricket. And we’ve got to find a way to make our processes and
our systems work with the cricket organization and with the players. So we
might need to alter the way we go about things to fit in with the culture
more so than the culture changing to fit in with us,” he said.
Domingo was part of a three-man shortlist, which included Mike Hesson and
Mickey Arthur, and had been interviewed by the BCB on Aug 7 and later
according to BCB officials he was appointed as the head coach on the back of
an impressive presentation.
Domingo made it clear that his main focus would be to prepare the next
generation of the cricketers as he would give more emphasis on aged level
cricket.
”It’s quite interesting. Everyone is talking about this presentation.
Because I have worked a lot at different levels of cricket, from Under-15 to
Under-17 to domestic cricket to international cricket, I think I am very
aware of how important feeder systems are. That’s where your next tier of
players comes from. I want to place a lot of emphasis on monitoring the
players just beneath the national side, and when there are opportunities to
play some of those players, you need to take those opportunities and it can’t
be for one or two games, you need to try and give players a little bit of a
run. Young players especially, so they can find their feet in international
cricket. So I think the gist of the presentation was that, we’ve got a good
national side but it’s important that we are evaluating the players just
below the national side to sustain the success of Bangladesh cricket,” he
said.
”After our series against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, I’m hoping to go to
Sri Lanka to watch the A side play – the A side has a tour to Sri Lanka in
the middle of September and I’m hoping to watch them in those games. It’s
impossible to watch all the cricket, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve got to
make sure I surround myself with people I can trust, selectors who are going
to give me good inputs, connect with the high-performance coaches, with the
‘A’ side coaches, and find out who they think the best players are that we
can invite closer to the national side, but it’s impossible to watch each and
every game,” he said.