Bangladesh head coach Hathurusinghe suspended on disciplinary grounds

Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has been suspended by the BCB on disciplinary grounds. He has been suspended for 48 hours and is to be "terminated immediately" after that period and has also been served a show-cause notice by the board. Phil Simmons will take over as head coach in an interim capacity till the 2025 Champions Trophy.

"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."

Hathurusinghe returned for his second stint as Bangladesh coach in February last year. In August this year, shortly after Ahmed was appointed as board president, he had said that Hathurusinghe should no longer continue as Bangladesh's head coach.

Under Hathurusinghe, Bangladesh put up underwhelming performances during last year's ODI World Cup and T20 World Cup campaign this year. His best achievement during this term was Bangladesh's 2-0 Test series win against Pakistan this year. It was their maiden win in Pakistan, and first overseas Test series win in 15 years. However, in the India tour that followed, they lost 2-0 in the Tests and 3-0 in the T20Is which included a record loss in the third match .

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