Simmons wants Tigers to 'focus on the cricket'

Bangladesh's newly-appointed head coach hopes the players can "leave out the confusion" as they preparation for the upcoming Tests against South Africa

Phil Simmons, Bangladesh's newly-appointed head coach, on Saturday said that he is eyeing to make his charges focus on cricket, leaving behind all the noise as they prepare to take on South Africa in the two-match Test series, scheduled at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium from tomorrow (Monday), reports Cricbuzz.

He has come into the team at a controversial time, following the axing of Chandika Hathurasinghe as the head coach and the unavailability of Shakib Al Hasan for home games, taking the attention from cricket to all the off-field controversies.

"That's the big part of our job over the next few days, to make sure the focus is on the cricket, and not on the outside of cricket. We can control how we prepare for Monday, that's how we are trying to get the team to focus," Simmons told reporters at his first official press conference at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the city on Saturday.

"The good thing is we have a very important Test match to prepare for. We win the next few Tests, and we are in contention for the (WTC) final. My first port of call is cricket, and about getting the squad ready for Monday. The last two days (of training) have been brilliant. We have to try to leave out the confusion that's around the cricket, and concentrate on preparing for Monday," he said.

Simmons, who will be the second West Indian to act as head coach of Bangladesh after Gordon Greenidge, said that his stint with different countries like Ireland and Afghanistan will help him guide the team forward.

"All these experiences will help me in the next few days to get me ready for Monday. Afghanistan helped me with the language barrier sometimes. Ireland helped me with developing young players. It all comes in at the end of the day. I have to use all those experiences in this assignment.

"My philosophy is to work hard in your preparation and results will come in the match. What I have seen in the last couple of days, these guys work really hard on their game, skills and fitness. I am pretty happy over the last couple of days," he said.

Simmons, who was interviewed earlier by BCB in 2018 but could not get the job, added that it was not a very difficult decision for him to take up the role when offered by the board.

"The interest comes from seeing the quality of the young players. They handled themselves well against Pakistan. They didn't do well in the T20Is against India but they played against the best T20 team in the world, so you have things to take out of there. It all added up to an assignment, which I enjoyed. One, young players to develop. Two, there are Tests and ODIs involved. It wasn't a hard decision.