Bangladesh fires cricket coach for allegedly assaulting a player at World Cup

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The Bangladesh Cricket Board fired national team coach Chandika Hathurusinghe on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting one of his players during last year’s 50-over World Cup in India.

“Hathurusinghe has two counts of misconduct,” BCB president Faruque Ahmed said Tuesday. “First is about an assault on a player. Secondly, he took too many leaves, more than what was in his contract.”

Ahmed said the board served notice to the Sri Lankan and suspended him for 48 hours after which his contract will be terminated.

“His suspension is for a 48-hour notice period, which we are not bound to give him, but we did it out of courtesy as he is an international figure,” Ahmed said. “We have suspended him, and with immediate effect afterwards he will be terminated.”

Former West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons, who has led Zimbabwe, Ireland, West Indies and Afghanistan as head coach in the past, will replace Hathurusinghe until the Champions Trophy in February next year.

The board did not give details of the alleged assault with some media reports saying Hathurusinghe had hit the player in question.

“The victim is not very comfortable about it, I will not mention his name,” Ahmed said. “This incident shouldn’t have happened.”

Ahmed also said Hathurusinghe's absences exceeded three months, which “is also large part of his misconduct.”

“He informed us in a scattered way, in one or two emails, that he has to go home,” Ahmed said. “It can’t be for more than three months … so there was a serious breach in that regard.”

Hathurusinghe was appointed Bangladesh coach last year. Bangladesh recorded its most significant away win in test history when it routed Pakistan 2-0 in the two-match series. But soon after Bangladesh crashed to a 2-0 test series defeat in India and also lost the T20 series 3-0 last month.

Hathurusinghe has made no public comment.