Domingo denies reports of his resignation

Russell Domingo has reaffirmed his commitment as Bangladesh's head coach in the Test and ODI formats after reports on Thursday morning said that he had resigned. Domingo and the BCB have both denied those claims, saying that Domingo's contract remains intact till November next year.

Domingo, who is currently in South Africa, said that he would get back to work in October with the Bangladesh A side that takes on Afghanistan A in the UAE, before joining the senior team ahead of their preparation for the India series at home in December.

"This is to confirm that all the rumours and speculations that I have resigned from the Bangladesh Cricket Board are not true," Domingo told ESPNcricinfo. "I am trying to get our cricket to where it needs to be in the one-day and Test format. I will be going to Abu Dhabi in October to work with the A side. I will then join the national team in December. As far as I am concerned, it is business as usual. I will continue the journey that I have started. My contract is till November 2023. I am fully committed to the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the next 15 months."

Earlier this week, the BCB replaced Domingo with S Sriram as the one in charge of the T20I side, although they stopped short of calling Sriram the head coach, using the term "technical consultant". Domingo said at the time that he was happy with the arrangement as it gave him more time to prepare for the ODI and Test teams, as well as giving him time with his family back in South Africa.

Domingo took up the Bangladesh job in September 2019. Since then, he has overseen the ODI side into the second position in the World Cup Super League, while winning a Test in New Zealand. His record in T20Is, however, came under scrutiny after Bangladesh's underwhelming performance at the T20 World Cup last year. This year so far, the team has just two wins from seven completed T20Is.

Bangladesh are currently in Dubai for the Asia Cup. After that, they will play a T20I tri-series in New Zealand that also involves Pakistan, before heading to Australia for the T20 World Cup in late October.

“No Riyad in Zim T20s was not the right decision”

Bangladesh head coach, Russell Domingo, said that he considered not taking Mahmudullah Riyad initially for the Zimbabwe T20s was the wrong thing to do.

The coach, who has been excluded from T20 plans altogether now with Sridharan Sriram in charge of the Bangladesh team in the Asia Cup, said that he was surprised at Riyad having made himself available for the last T20I in which Mosaddek Hossain was the captain.

Mahmudullah lost his T20 captaincy before the tour of Zimbabwe after poor performances in West Indies. The player was also rested for the T20 tour of Zimbabwe and then brought into the side for the final T20I to replace the then injured skipper Nurul Hasan Sohan.

"Regarding Mahmudullah, I don't think it was the right decision to not take him to the T20s in Zimbabwe in the first place," Domingo said in an interview with the media on Wednesday.

"I know the selectors picked five openers which I think was not a good decision. We ended up playing some top-order batters in the middle order which did not help us. I definitely would have preferred Riyad in the T20 squad for Zimbabwe.

"Then he got brought back into the T20 squad for the last game, considering how his selection went before that, I was surprised he made himself available for that to be honest. I would not have blamed him if he made himself unavailable for that last game. I don't know whether it was right or wrong decision that he was picked for the last game."