|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh Cricket Board official said on Saturday that they have opted to pick Russel Domingo as their next head coach due to availability.

Domingo, the former coach of South Africa, will start his stint with the Bangladesh team from August 21 while his contract is set to run for the next two years.

In the age of franchise based cricket coaches are more concerned to have some windows during different tournaments, but Domingo was different.

"We have decided to pick Russell as he will be available. There were other candidates but we wanted someone who could be available for us and certainly he has got the experience. We want a coach who can have a long term plan and he fits that because he is not interested to take leave," said BCB president Nazmul Hasan. "He has a wealth of experience and we have been very impressed with his passion and coaching philosophy. He has a clear idea of what is required to take the team forward.

"We are very delighted to see that a lot of high profiled coaches expressed their eagerness to work with us. I thanked them from the bottom of my heart to show their interest. It was very difficult for us to select the head coach as lot of high profiled coaches showed their interest. So it was a tough decision to take for us.

"There were three candidates who were in our top list. We have to set the criteria to make our choice. The most important criteria was the availability. Some of the interested candidates cannot come in this moment as they have commitments in other places. We also seek a full time coach which was also in one of our criteria.

Domingo was part of a three-man shortlist that included Mike Hesson (who lost out on the India coach race) and Mickey Arthur (whose contract as Pakistan coach was not extended).