Bangladesh put search for coach on hold

DHAKA, Aug 2 (Reuters) Bangladesh have shelved plans to hire a new cricket coach and have asked interim coach Shaun Williams to stay on until the Twenty20 World Cup.

''We have asked Williams to continue until Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September,'' Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official Ahmed Sazzadul Alam, said today.

He said Bangladesh would chose a coach before December when the squad will start its tour of New Zealand.

A 12-member interim committee headed by Major-General Sina Ibn Jamali took over the BCB after the government had dissolved the previous committee on Sunday.

The committee had shortlisted Australians Jamie Siddons, 43, and John Harmer, 65, and Zimbabwean Dave Houghton, 50, as their preferred candidates.

Bangladesh needed a coach after Sri Lanka-born Australian Dav Whatmore declined to renew his contract in May this year.

Whatmore started coaching Bangladesh in 2003 and in March steered the country to the second round of the World Cup for the first time.

Bangladesh A team coach Shaun Williams took charge of the national side in the recent tour of Sri Lanka, which they lost 3-0 in both test and one-day series.

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