Goal is to turn Bangladesh coaches into global professionals: Bulbul

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul expressed optimism that local coaches will one day work abroad, provided they continue to enhance their expertise through the board's ongoing coaching initiatives.

The BCB on Wednesday launched a three-day 'Run Scoring Workshop' for local coaches, with Australian tutors Ashley Ross and Ian Renshaw conducting sessions. The program focuses on every aspect of batting and the art of coaching batting, with the goal of sharpening players' run-scoring abilities.

A total of 20 BCB coaches are participating in the course, including former national stalwarts Mahmudullah Riyad, Mohammad Ashraful, and Shahriar Nafees. The workshop will be followed by a Level 3 coaching course from September 15-19.

Many of the participants are already engaged in various roles within Bangladesh cricket, from age-level teams and the High Performance Unit to the Bangladesh Tigers and national men's and women's teams. Bulbul, however, sees a bigger picture.

"The question is how we can turn our existing local coaches into international-standard coaches, so that in the future our coaches can also work abroad. That is one of our big goals," Bulbul told reporters in Mirpur on Wednesday. 

He pointed out that coaching opportunities are expanding not just in Asia but also in associate nations, and Bangladesh's ex-cricketers -- once equipped with high-level coaching education -- could fill that demand.

"Take Riyad, Shahriar Nafees, Ashraful, Rajin Saleh, they are all accomplished Test cricketers. Now, if they have zero knowledge of coaching, maybe they could not become coaches. But once they receive high-level coaching education, combined with their playing experience, that blend is something very rare in the world.

"This is not just about playing, it is the first step toward becoming world-class coaches," he said, adding that these graduates will eventually be able to train regional coaches as well.

Meanwhile, tutor Ashley Ross was struck by the quality of knowledge and experience already present among Bangladeshi coaches.

"We are lucky because there's such beautiful knowledge in the room. Ian and I, we are talking about the theory, but these beautiful batters are telling us how it's done in Bangladesh. We marveled at the quality of the players here. What we are really doing is drawing the things out of them and teaching them how to coach batting, rather than just bat," Ross said.