The 57-year-old Hashan Tillakaratne has decided to step down as head coach of the Bangladesh Women’s team. He confirmed his decision to the board after the recently concluded Bangladesh women tour of West Indies.
Bangladesh had a poor outing in the series after a defeat in 3-0 T20Is and 2-1 ODIs in the Caribbean. Hashan Tillakaratne was appointed as the head coach of the Bangladesh women’s team in October 2022 on a two-year contract, and later it was extended till the recent tour.
“During the tour of the West Indies he informed us that he is not willing to continue anymore,” said Habibul Bashar.
The Bangladesh women’s Team achieved some notable bilateral successes but struggled to establish themselves at the global level during his tenure. The team participated in two T20 World Cups under his guidance and managed to secure a solitary total across the two campaign.
It has been learnt that the board was not particularly enthuastic about renewing his contract and looked for alternative options.
The prompted the Sri Lanka to made up his mind as far as continuing with national Cricket team is concerned.
It has been learnt that the Board is mulling with the idea of appointing of a local coach that makes Women’s U19 head coach Sarowar Imran the front runner.
Tillakaratne failed to establish Bangladesh as a force to reckon with on the global stage, he had some memorable achievement that include earning a draw against full strength India team in 2023 while also earning a historic series win against Pakistan at home.
Bangladesh missed diredt qualification for the 2025 women’s ODI World Cup as they finished on 21 points in the Women’s Championship table, level with New Zealand who had more wins.
Bangladesh eight-wicket loss to West Indies has now forced them to play in the qualifiers to earn a spot in the ICC event, scheduled to be played in India later this year.
While India, New Zealand, Australia, England, South Africa and Sri Lanka earned automatic places in the World Cup Bangladesh will be playing the qualifiers along West Indies, Pakistan, Ireland, Scotland and Thailand with two teams out of these six qualifying for the main event.
