Hathurusinghe raises questions on his Bangladesh sacking by calling the entire process of his termination “premeditated”.
Hathurusinghe has accused BCB president Faruque Ahmed of making “premeditated” allegations against him. These are namely of assaulting a player and breaching his terms of employment.
“These allegations appear to me to be premeditated,” Hathurusinghe said in a statement. “On the first day of the new president’s term, he made a public statement expressing his desire to remove the head coach, which he acknowledged might involve financial repercussions for the BCB.
“Additionally, I was shocked to receive a ‘show cause notice’ just four hours before the appointment of another head coach. This is despite the notice stating that I had 48 hours to prove my innocence. This sequence of events raises serious questions about the motives behind these actions.”
On October 15, Hathurusinghe was punished by the BCB for allegedly hitting a player during the 2023 ODI World Cup and for taking more time off than allowed under his contract. On October 17, the board formally ended his employment.
Hathurusinghe stated that the claimed event was only made public after a YouTuber “orchestrated the narrative”. The player in issue had not reported it to the Bangladesh team management at the time.
“I cannot allow this presumption [to go] unchallenged without responding,” Hathurusinghe wrote. “I believe it is essential to clarify the facts surrounding these accusations and present my side of the story. Firstly, the alleged incident purportedly occurred in the players’ dugout or dressing room, a location that is under constant surveillance during World Cup matches…
“Furthermore, if the incident was as serious as claimed. It is perplexing that the player involved did not report the incident to the team manager or any authority immediately following the alleged event. If a complaint was made, I wonder why I was not questioned or approached for my side of the story. It raises the question as to why the narrative was orchestrated months later by an individual on YouTube?”