Ex-SA coach Russell Domingo in line for Bangladesh job

CAPE TOWN, Aug 07 (https://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket): Former South African cricket coach Russell Domingo is reportedly among the front-runners to be Bangladesh's new head coach.

According to high-level sources at the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Domingo is in Dhaka at the moment, and is the favourite to succeed Steve Rhodes.

The Englishman's two-year contract was terminated following Bangladesh's eighth-place finish at the Cricket World Cup last month in the United Kingdom.

Rhodes was supposed to be in the role until the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.

"We have decided to part ways with the head coach by mutual consent. The decision will be effective immediately," Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the BCB chief executive, told AFP at the time.

Khaled Mahmud, who is also a BCB director, was appointed interim coach after the World Cup, but could not change the team's fortunes as the Tigers slumped to a 3-0 ODI series whitewash to Sri Lanka recently.

Domingo currently holds the position of South Africa 'A' coach, with a tour to India on the horizon that precedes the Proteas' T20 International and Test series against Virat Kohli's team.

The 44-year-old remains the only South African coach to oversee a Proteas win in the knockout stages of the ICC World Cup when the team eliminated Sri Lanka at the quarter-final stage in Sydney in 2015.

He was in charge of the Proteas for four years from 2013 until 2017.

For many, Domingo would also have been viewed as a strong candidate to take the Proteas to India for the three-match T20I and three-match Test series on an interim basis, if Cricket South Africa had not filled the vacancy after Ottis Gibson's exit this week.

The BCB have already renewed former Proteas batsman Neil McKenzie's contract after the Bangladesh batsmen impressed at the World Cup, while they also recently acquired the services of former Proteas swing bowler Charl Langeveldt.

Both McKenzie (batting coach) and Langeveldt (bowling coach) were part of Domingo's Proteas support staff during his tenure with the SA national team, and his appointment would complete the triumvirate.

The BCB could be tempted to lure another former Proteas coach in Mickey Arthur, after he was released by the Pakistan Cricket Board on Tuesday, should they not close the deal with Domingo.

Arthur, though, could be viewing a more high-profile post with the English Cricket Board, as World Cup-winning coach Trevor Bayliss will vacate his role after the Ashes.