Women's cricket team gets new selection committe, spin coach also appointed

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has made several changes for the national women's cricket team.

A few days ago former cricketer Manjurul Islam was removed from the post of selector.

BCB has now formed a new national selection committee.

For the first time, a spin coach has been appointed for the women's team.

Also, a new coaching panel has been finalised for age-level cricket.

Two former cricketers Sajjad Ahmed Shipon and Sajal Ahmed Chowdhury will be the selectors of the women's team.

BCB women's wing chairman Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel told reporters at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Announcing the selection committee, the BCB director said, "We have brought Sajjad Ahmed Shipon Bhai to the selection panel and Sajal Ahmed Chowdhury is also there. We might appoint a third selector later as our number of tournaments has increased a lot. It is not possible for one person to cover so many tournaments." 

"So we are going to do it (increase the number of selectors). Age-wise, emerging teams and national teams - in all the games our selectors can be on the field, they can see it," added the women's wing chairman.

Shafiul Alam also announced the name of the new spin coach of the women's team, former Sri Lankan cricketer Dinuka Hettiarachchi.

Shafiul said, "Our national team has Hashan Thilakarathne as head coach and recently we have hired Dinuka (Hettiarachchi) as spin coach from Sri Lanka. He will join in 2-4 days.'

The international career of the spin coach of the women's team is short.

Dinuka, 46, has played one match for Sri Lanka.

The left-arm spinner made his Test debut against England in 2001, his only international match.

However, Dinuka has a glittering career in first-class cricket with 1000 wickets in 234 matches and 208 wickets in 136 List 'A' cricket matches.

Apart from the new selection committee and spin coach, the BCB are setting up a new coaching panel for age-level women's cricket.

Shafiul Alam said, "We have taken Dipu Roy Chowdhury and Wahidul Gani for age-level games. Deepu Roy has worked before There are plans to add 3-4 more coaches to this panel. Hopefully, they will build age-based cricket teams well and we can have a strong pipeline of players in the future."

Explaining the changes in women's cricket, the BCB director said, "We have started many tournaments in the past few days. Age-wise cricket, divisional level tournaments... we are going to start school cricket. After getting the Test status we have started a two-day match tournament (BCL) with three teams. Next year or the year after, there may be an increase in the number of teams and we also have thoughts of expanding the tournament."

About the expansion and self-sufficiency of women's cricket, Shafiul Alam said, "Now women's cricket is no longer limited to two-one tournaments or two-one tours as before. Our activities have increased. At various times we (BCB) have to borrow manpower from game development, bring in people from other places and conduct the tournaments by collaborating. President Nazmul Hassan Papon also said that the women's department should have a complete structure and by increasing manpower, it should be able to advance the programs it has with its own people. That's why we made some changes."