Bangladesh's batting and fielding coaches withdraw from Pakistan tour

Bangladesh's batting coach Neil McKenzie and fielding coach Ryan Cook have withdrawn from the first leg of the upcoming Pakistan tour, the country's cricket board said on Saturday. Bangladesh Cricket Board's cricket operations chairman Akram Khan said the team will be without five members of the coaching staff.

While former South African cricketer McKenzi and Cook have themselves withdrawn, the BCB decided not to call spin consultant Daniel Vettori for such a short series. Team analyst Shrinivaas Chandrasekaran was also not considered on account of him being an Indian citizen while strength and conditioning coach Mario Villavarayan has broken his hand.

"Mario broke his hand recently while team analyst will be working with the team over Skype. McKenzie and fielding coach will also not be going, while we haven't yet confirmed on our new bowling coach," Akram was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. Sohel Islam and Tushar Kanti Howlader will act as replacements for Cook and Villavarayan respectively while head coach Rusell Domingo will only have the services of physio Julian Calefato from his regular staff.

Earlier this week, wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rehman had also refused to travel to Pakistan. Bangladesh are scheduled to play three Twenty20 internationals, two Tests and one one-day international in Pakistan between January and April.

The T20I series will be played from January 24-27, followed by the first Test from February 7 to 11 in Rawalpindi. Bangladesh will play an ODI on April 3 in Karachi before the second Test is played in the same city from April 5.

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