Former Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal said on Wednesday that he doesn’t feel local coaches are ready to fill the post of national head coach but wants them to assist in the national team as well. However, Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha’s performance came under the scanner during the ongoing tour of India when they defeated them in the second Test despite two days being lost due to rain as well.

Since Faruque Ahmed took over as BCB president role, there have been talks regarding the future of Hathurusingha due to their relationship in the past when Faruque had to resign from his post after BCB decided to have a two-tier selection panel that many believed the Sri Lankan decided that.

“I personally don’t think any local coach is ready to become national team’s head coach. I also said that there are three- four coaches who are ready to become an assistant coach. When someone is to become a captain, we tell him to play a bit more, then he will become the captain. That’s exactly the same for the coaches,” Tamim told reporters at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday. “There are a few of them who are very much capable of doing assistant coach’s job. If they work there for 2-3 years, they will be capable of becoming Bangladesh’s head coach. That’s what I meant. I don’t think at the moment, anybody is ready.”

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“It’s tough for me to predict how challenging that will be. I don’t think I should make a statement on this. What I think is T20 is not the only format, there are Test and ODIs. How many of our senior coaches are active in four-day cricket in national league? Maybe we can tell one or two names, but if you think in general, the coaches need to be experienced just like the players. Yes they are capable, many players rely on local coaches these days,” he again said.

“I myself relied on them [local coaches] too whenever I had any problems but head coach is a very different thing. If they are with the setup I think it will be good if there is a 70:30 ratio in coaching panel. If they are with the team for two years, then they will have the experience and then why not? Someone from Bangladesh has to become the head coach at some point,” he shared.

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However, ahead of the Pakistan tour, the Test cricketers had a long camp under Sohel and many believed it played a key part in their historical Test series win over their Asian neighbours as well.

“I had an opportunity to work with him [Sohel] and what I can say is he is the most improved coach in the last 10 years, and currently the best coach in the country. 100 percent. You will see, Babul bhai and Sohel bhaihave been with our cricket for the last 10-15 years. I think Sohel bhai actually does the most important job at this moment more than the head coach. From that players come ready to play for the national team. And he is actually very capable. We don’t talk about him a lot. But 60-70% of the players, they all go to him now. Because he has built that trust over the years,” he concluded.