Domingo ready to adapt with cultural change

Coach

Domingo ready to adapt with cultural change

Z.Ahmed

21 Aug 19 15:22:28

Photo: Collected

CF Correspondent

Bangladesh newly head coach Russell Domingo said on Wednesday that he is ready to adapt with the cultural change as he takes the reign of the sub-continental set-up for the first time in his career.

Domingo, a former coach of South Africa, has been appointed on a two-year contract by BCB after they parted ways with former head coach Steve Rhodes after the World Cup.

Domingo, who arrived a day before to join the condition camp of Bangladesh ahead of their upcoming series against Afghanistan for the one-match Test series followed by the tri-nation involving Zimbabwe, looked totally bemused by the media attention.

‘’We can’t expect Bangladesh cricket to adapt to us, we’ve got to adapt to Bangladesh cricket. And we’ve got to find a way to make our processes and our systems work with the cricket organization and with the players. So we might need to alter the way we go about things to fit in with the culture more so than the culture changing to fit in with us,’’ Domingo said with his first official press conference with Bangladeshi media.

‘’My immediate goal is to make some sort of connection with the players, to understand the players, build some relationships over the next week or two – I think that’s massively important. Try and gain the players’ trust, see how the players go about their work. It’s very much an observatory role the next couple of days, to just see how they go about their business and take some learning from that,’’ he added.

Domingo was part of a three-man shortlist, which included Mike Hesson and Mickey Arthur, and had been interviewed by the BCB on Aug 7 and later according to BCB officials he was appointed as the head coach on the back of an impressive presentation.

When asked to emphasize on the presentation, Domingo looked pretty shy initially before opening up gradually.

‘’It’s quite interesting. Everyone is talking about this presentation. Because I have worked at a lot of different levels of cricket, from Under-15 to Under-17 to domestic cricket to international cricket, I think I am very aware of how important feeder systems are. That’s where your next tier of players comes from. I want to place a lot of emphasis on monitoring the players just beneath the national side, and when there are opportunities to play some of those players, you need to take those opportunities And it can’t be for one or two games, you need to try and give players a little bit of a run. Young players especially, so they can find their feet in international cricket. So I think the gist of the presentation was that, that we’ve got a good national side but it’s important that we are evaluating the players just below the national side to sustain the success of Bangladesh cricket,’’ said Domingo adding that he is ready to look beyond the national set-up and in order to do that planning to go to Sri Lanka to see the matches of Bangladesh A.

‘’After our series against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, I’m hoping to go to Sri Lanka to watch the A side play – the A side has a tour to Sri Lanka in the middle of September and I’m hoping to watch them in those games. It’s impossible to watch all the cricket, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve got to make sure I surround myself with people I can trust, selectors who are going to give me good inputs, connect with the high-performance coaches, with the ‘A’ side coaches, and find out who they think the best players are that we can invite closer to the national side, but it’s impossible to watch each and every game,’’ he said.