Bangladesh head coach Phil Simmons on Monday downplayed the chaotic buildup to the first Test against the West Indies, insisting his team is not fazed by it ahead of the crucial series.
The first of the two Tests is set to begin on Wednesday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
Just four days before the first Test, batting coach Mohammad Ashraful was replaced with Mohammad Salahuddin on an interim basis, following the team’s winless campaign in the UAE tri-series against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) officials, including president Tamim Iqbal, also had a meeting with senior members of the national team after continuous poor results in white-ball cricket.
You have been in Bangladesh a lot longer than me. You’ve seen world cricket a lot longer than me. Is this the first time there’s chaos before a match?Phil Simmons, Bangladesh cricket team head coach
However, in the red-ball format, Bangladesh are in decent form, having completed a historic Test win in Australia in Darwin just last month and find themselves in contention of a place in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final.
A change in the coaching setup so close to an important series, which is part of the WTC, raises questions about the team’s mentals state heading into the Dhaka Test.
But Simmons said that chaos ahead of a match is nothing new in Bangladesh and in international cricket and should not bother his charges.
“You have been in Bangladesh a lot longer than me. You’ve seen world cricket a lot longer than me. Is this the first time there’s chaos before a match? No, right,” Simmons told reporters on Monday.
“Every series is important. Those that we were playing at the start of this two-year [cycle] were important too. But the thing is how we go about our business, our preparation for the series,” he said.
The Caribbean coach also confirmed that he was present in the meeting between BCB officials and the players.
“I was there. I was present in the meeting. The meeting was more about how the things that we need to put together to push Bangladesh cricket forward,” Simmons said.
Simmons reiterated that outside noise will not dictate how his players go about their game on the field.
“I think that the group that was here have been excellent in the last three or four days. They’ve been doing their work and now the whole team joins together. It’s what we do over the next two days. It’s not what’s happening outside, it’s what we do as a team to prepare.”