Stuart MacGill declines Bangladesh spin coaching job

Former Australian leg-spinner Stuart MacGill has declined the spin coaching role offered by the Bangladesh cricket team ahead of the two-Test series between the teams. MacGill was expected to join the squad as soon as he would have accepted the offer.

The sub continent side was hoping to gain some useful knowledge about the Australian team by roping in the successful former spinner. MacGill has scalped a whopping 208 wickets in just 44 Test matches which shows he was superemely successful with the ball in hand and would have played a crucial role in the Bangladeshi setup.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had cleared that the Aussie was their first choice as a spin bowling coach. “You know that our president (BCB president Nazmul Hasan) already cleared it that Stuart MacGill was our first choice as soon bowling coach,” CEO of BCB Nizamuddin Chowdhury said.

“(But) for some of his personal reasons he cannot join the team at the moment,” he told the reporters at a press conference in Dhaka. “ We will now go for our second or third option. We hope within a day or two we will be able to tell something about this,” Chowdhury added.

Bangladesh team is without a spin bowling coach since the sacking of Sri Lankan, Ruwan Kalpage. Kalpage had failed to report for duty following a deadly Islamist extremist attack at a posh Dhaka cafe in July 2016.

Bangladesh looking to build on a fruitful year

The Tigers have had a wonderful year across the formats so far. They have managed to beat England and Sri Lanka in Tests and also made it to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy in June.

Beating Australia would give them a huge amount of confidence and hence they approached MacGill keeping in mind the successful career in the baggy green.

Australia are due to arrive Bangladesh soon and will play their only warm up game at Fatullah on August 22 post which the first Test of the series will commence from 27th August.