ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Bangladesh rope in former Indian spinner in consultant role

Bangladesh have roped in former Indian spinner as technical consultant for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

Bangladesh cricket team have included a former Indian left-arm spinner Shridharan Sriram as the new technical consultant for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India. This will be the second term for Shridharan Sriram with the Bangladesh squad as he also assisted them in the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Bangladesh will play a 3-match ODI series against New Zealand before heading India. 

As quoted by Cricbuzz, Bangladesh team director for the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2023 Khaled Mahmud has informed, “Yes we have appointed him as technical consultant for the forthcoming World Cup.” Shridharan Sriram will join the Bangladesh squad on 27th September in Guwahati. Bangladesh will play their opening warm-up game against Sri Lanka at Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. 

Sriram will help with local knowledge:

BCB’s cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus expressed that Sriram will provide them with a lot of knowledge at the local level that will help the Bangladesh team. Yunus said, “We will get a lot of technical support from him. He knows all the wickets in India. He can tell us about the weather conditions too. Very few of our players have played in India, so his input will be quite important.” 

Shridharan Sriram was Bangladesh’s head coach in the T20 World Cup last year when the Bangladesh cricket board decided to go with split coaching. Russell Domingo was appointed Test and ODI coach. But soon the BCB decided to go with Chandika Hathurusingha as head coach leaving behind the split coaching idea. Sriram had a successful tenure in the T20 World Cup 2022 with Bangladesh. 

Shridharan Sriran was Australia’s spin consultant for 6 years and soon after leaving his job in Australia, he joined the Bangladesh camp. Sriram also joined Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League for one season in 2019 as batting and spin bowling coach. Sriram had played 8 ODI games for India mostly in 2003 and 2004 under Sourav Ganguly. He picked up 9 wickets in his short international career.