Shawdesh Desk:

The fulltime availability of South African Russell Domingo gave him the edge over other candidates in the race to become Bangladesh’s new head coach, said the Bangladesh Cricket Board after announcing his appointment on Saturday.

BCB were looking to fill the vacant national team head coach position since July 7 after it parted ways with Englishman Steve Rhodes.

Domingo was the only candidate who came to Bangladesh on August 7 for a face-to-face interview and the BCB expressed their satisfaction with his presentation, where he gave his long-term plan for the national team till the 2023 ICC World Cup in India.

A few other candidates emerged later, some with a better profile, but BCB was in a hurry to name the coach with a one-off Test series against Afghanistan and a tri-nation Twenty20 tournament involving the visitors and Zimbabwe coming in September.

Some candidates were not available immediately while some other sought to work in a specific time and window for coaching in franchise-based Twenty20 tournament, indicated BCB president Nazmul, adding that the former South Africa coach had no such issue.

‘We had set some criteria to make our choice. The most important criteria was availability,’ BCB president Nazmul Hasan told reporters at Mirpur while making the announcement.

‘Some of the interested candidates cannot come at this moment as they have commitments in other places. We also sought a full time coach which was also one of our criteria.

‘He says he is very keen to work with the boys and didn’t want any holiday break. These are the areas where we find him suitable for the post,’ he added.

Domingo has initially agreed to work for two years and arrive in Dhaka on August 21 to take charge of the team.

Nazmul said Domingo’s huge experience as coach also encouraged them to go for him.

‘He has a vast coaching experience. He started coaching comparatively in early age. In 2012 he first worked with South African team. He was their coach in 2015 ODI World Cup. He worked with South Africa until 2017. He is currently working with their HP team,’ he added.

Domingo said he was eagerly looking forward to his new challenge with the Tigers.

‘It is a massive honour to be appointed the head coach of the Bangladesh national cricket Team. I have followed Bangladesh’s progress with keen interest and I am extremely excited to assist the team in reaching the goals that they are capable of,’ a BCB statement quoted him as saying.

‘I look forward to continuing the ongoing development of current players whilst also looking towards the future and developing some new bright stars from within the talent pool of Bangladesh cricket,’ he said.

Domingo had played junior cricket for Eastern Province before moving into coaching at an early age.

He became the South Africa Under-19 coach for the 2004 ICC Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. In 2010, Domingo was made the coach of South Africa A for the tour of Bangladesh.

Domingo was appointed Assistant Coach of the South Africa national team in 2011 and took over from Gary Kirsten as coach of the T20 squad in December 2012 before replacing Kirsten as national team head coach in 2013. He held the post up to 2017.

He has led South Africa to semi-finals of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh and the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Domingo has also coached the Warriors franchise in South Africa’s domestic one-day and Twenty20 competitions and at the Champions League Twenty20.