Hathurusinghe fled Bangladesh ‘fearing for his life’: report
NN Online:
Former Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe has opened up about his departure from Bangladesh during the Anti-discrimination Movement, saying he “feared for his life” while fleeing the country.
The former Sri Lankan batter decided to leave as he panicked due to a lack of security, Cricbuzz reported quoting Code Sport on Sunday.
Hathurusinghe left the country after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) suspended him for breaching their code of conduct.
The BCB brought misconduct charges against Hathurusinghe — “misconduct with a player” and “misconduct as an employee”.
Later, the BCB sacked him and even though he dismissed the allegations, he never spoke about what happened in that tumultuous time until Sunday when he spoke to Code Sport, Cricbuzz reported.
The board then said Hathurasinghe had been dismissed after a show cause notice was issued on certain matters as his response was “unacceptable” and “dissatisfactory”.
“The Bangladesh CEO’s last words to me was that his advice was I should go. ‘You don’t need to tell any of the board people, do you have a ticket to go?’ This was a warning sign for me. That’s when I got a little bit alarmed,” Hathurusinghe was quoted in the report on Sunday.
“Normally I get a driver and a gunman when travelling around in that country. He said, ‘Did you get your gunman and your driver today?’ I said, no, ‘I only had the driver’,” he said.
“I went straight to the bank, trying to get the money to leave the country. While I was in the bank there was a breaking news story on the TV; ‘Chandika sacked. Assaulted a player,” he added. “When that came up, the bank manager said, ‘Coach, I have to come with you. It is not safe for you if people see you on the roads.”
“Now I’m panicking because I need to get out of the country. A friend drove me to the airport for a midnight flight on Singapore Airlines and I’m arriving in a cap and a hoodie and there’s no protection,” he was quoted as saying.
“They could have arrested me at the airport for trying to flee the country. There was a case where an interior minister from the previous government was trying to flee the country and the plane was stopped on the runway and they kicked him off. All this is going through my mind. Then at the x-ray machine at the entrance, one of the Air Force officers said to me; ‘I’m sorry coach, I’m very sorry that you’re going’ (gets emotional). I was fearing for my life and he’s saying I had done something for their country,” he added.
According to media reports, the Sri Lankan “assaulted” Bangladeshi bowler Nasum Ahmed during the World Cup clash against New Zealand, leading to his “dismissal”.
Hathurusinghe, however, denied the allegation, Cricbuzz reported.
While Hathurusinghe was never asked by the BCB for his version of events, Nasum refused to ever publicly comment on this issue, it added.
“It’s everything because this is my career. Now they’ve ruined my career by bringing allegations rather than giving me an opportunity to defend myself,” he said.
His best guess was he had “tapped Nasum on the back” while sitting behind him in the dugout to get his attention to hand gloves out to the batters on the field, according to Cricbuzz.
“I have never had a fight with a player. I don’t show emotion to my players. Maybe I’ve kicked a dustbin out of sight from frustration – that’s happened to any coach. But that’s very different to what this is,” he said according to the report.
Nic Pothas, former South African cricketer and Hathurusinghe’s assistant coach at the time also dismissed the allegation.
“That’s just me knowing the person. He’s a highly, highly experienced international and professional coach. He wouldn’t have lasted at that level if he had that in him,” Cricbuzz quotes Pothas as saying to Code Sport.
“I think there’s probably a grudge to bear from whoever alleged that. And the person who alleged it probably didn’t think it was going to blow up like this, and now that it has, I don’t think he’s realised what chaos he’s caused and how difficult he’s made Hathu’s life post-Bangladesh.
“(Tapping players on the back) happens all the time. Because of the language barriers, you do have to communicate a lot through hand signals.”