The national selection committee has named Khaled Mahmud, a former captain of the Bangladesh men’s team and current director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, as the “team director” for the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023.
Mahmud had previously insisted that he was not prepared to take over as team director, a position he had vacated during the home series against India. Mahmud did, however, affirm to Cricbuzz on Tuesday that he was unable to decline BCB president Nazmul Hasan’s offer for the position. Mahmud added, “I could not say no to Papan (Nazmul) bhai) when he contacted me this morning and said he was including my name in the team management list for the World Cup.”
Mahmud previously assisted Chandika Hathurusingha in managing the Bangladesh squad during his first tenure as national head coach, and the two get along well.
Mahmud admitted that he is not entirely certain whether or not he will be involved in the selection process, despite being adamant that he was when he was last appointed as the team director following their disastrous performance at the ICC World T20 in 2021.
Mahmud, who had previously held the role of technical director, made the decision to resign from it since he had little influence over the personnel decisions and game plans made by the team’s management, which included head coach Russell Domingo.
Later, when the BCB chose to implement split coaching, with Sriram overseeing the T20Is and Domingo overseeing the Test and ODI cricketers, he was a member of the team management that was under the direction of Sridharan Sriram in the shortest format.
