Experience of working with RCB and Australia will help me with my assignment in Bangladesh: Sriram

Dubai: Sridharan Sriram, Bangladesh’s newly-appointed technical consultant and coach during the team’s campaign in the Asia Cup beginning in the UAE on August 27, believes his long stint with the Australian men’s cricket team and IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore will help him bring a “good mixture” of experience to the struggling side led by Shakib Al Hasan.

“My experience of dealing with different cultures like work with the IPL, work with the Indian boys and work with the Aussie set-up and so I think there is a good mixture of the east and the west,” Sriram was quoted as saying by The Daily Star on Friday.

Bangladesh will open their account in the Asia Cup on August 30 against Afghanistan in Group B with Sriram’s primary task being to help the team win its maiden title in the continental showpiece event.

The Chennai-based Sriram had been with the Australian squad for six years as predominately a spin coach, while also playing a key role in the batting, fielding and strategy for the side across multiple campaigns. He played eight ODIs for the India national side between 2000 and 2004, playing his last international match against Bangladesh in 2004 at Dhaka.

“Coming into the culture like Bangladesh I understand the upbringing and I understand the way they approach the game and at the same time I can bring those professionalism and the expectations and I can really set clear expectations of what is required at this level from a professional stand point so I think it’s a good sort of combination and I am looking forward to it,” he added.

The BCB president, Nazmul Hassan Papon, had recently hinted at making “drastic changes” to improve Bangladesh’s performance in the Asia Cup and the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, and Sriram’s appointment is a step in that direction.

“I think it’s (my role) very simple and I am very clear about my role here, probably bring the resources together. We got some very good skill coaches and I trust what they are doing completely and my job is to basically work with the captain, work with the team director and bring the skill coaches together. Bring all the three components together and use my T20 experience of IPL and Australia and bring a strategy where we can use our resources properly and so I am very clear about my role and I am not saying I am leading the side and I am just trying to collaborate,” Sriram elaborated.

On whether he would be able to turn Bangladesh into a winning unit in such a short span of time, Sriram said, he is just looking to bring in “fresh energies” in the team and wants the players to “start afresh”.

“I am carrying with a fresh set of eyes and I am carrying no baggage. What you are saying is news to me and so I am not looking it at that way and looking at fresh set of eyes and so I am bringing in my ideas and I am bringing in fresh energies and so and I am just wanting to get the team together and start afresh,” the coach said.

–IANS