Sanjay Bangar turns down BCB's offer to become Bangladesh's Test batting consultant

Former India allrounder and batting coach Sanjay Bangar has turned down Bangladesh Cricket Board’s offer to become its Test team’s consultant. Bangar, whose tenure as India’s batting coach came to an end last year, cited professional commitments as the reason behind not taking the job offered by Bangladesh Cricket Board.

Bangar has not been associated with any team since his association with Team India ended last September. He has been busy with commentary duties after parting ways with the national team. The tenure ended with a thumping 2-0 win in the Test series over West Indies. Bangar was offered an opportunity to reassert his position from a presentation but the BCCI picked former India opener Vikram Rathour.

Bangar joined the team in 2014 when Duncan Fletcher was the chief coach and served as the batting coach under Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri. India was No. 5 in Test rankings and by the time Bangar left, the team was at No. 1. During his tenure, India performed exceedingly well across all the three formats. During this phase, he also served as the coach of IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab.

Sanjay Bangar cites the reason behind turning down the offer

Sanjay Bangar revealed that he could not accept Bangladesh’s offer as he signed a two-year contract with Star Sports in the interim. The former allrounder confirmed that he had received the offer from Bangladesh two months ago but he had finalised the contract with the broadcasters in the interim. At the same time, he insisted that he is looking forward to working with Bangladesh in future.

“They offered me the position eight weeks ago. But in the interim, I finalised my contract with Star which gave me the opportunity to balance out my personal and professional commitments. However, I look forward to working with BCB in the future,” Bangar was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

The BCB had approached the ex-India batting coach for the role after former South Africa batsman Neil McKenzie, who is Bangladesh’s white-ball consultant, refused to extend his role to all formats. Bangladesh are scheduled to host Australia for a two-Test series in June this year.