Kirsten gets short-term BCB job

DHAKA: Gary Kirsten has agreed to a short-term consultancy role with Bangladesh, during which he’ll assist the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in finding a new head coach. The appointment will be ad interim despite BCB’s insistence for a more long-term role, given Kirsten’s other commitments round the year. “He [Kirsten] is working as our consultant for finding a coach. In order to do so, he is completing an internal audit,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said on Monday (May 21). “Earlier we proposed a long-term association until the next World Cup, and he initially agreed but later confirmed that he will only be available on a short-term basis as he has got other engagements,’’ added Chowdhury. After arriving in the country on Sunday for a three-day visit, Kirsten spent a busy day in Dhaka, where he attended a series of meetings with officials and players — Mashrafe Mortaza, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal notably — to prepare an internal audit required in order to recommend the next head coach of Bangladesh, a post that has remained vacant since the unexpected departure of Chandika Hathurusingha. Kirsten, in addition to finding a head coach, will also prepare a road map for Bangladesh leading into the all-important World Cup next year in England.