The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has added three recognisable names to its support staff, confirming Alex Marshall as anti-corruption consultant, Julian Wood as short-term batting coach and Tony Hemming as head of turf management. The decisions came out of Saturday’s board meeting in Dhaka.
Marshall, formerly general manager of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit, will work with the BCB for a year, tasked with strengthening systems around the men’s domestic and international calendar. Board media committee chair Iftekhar Rahman explained the thinking: they want Marshall to “enhance” the board’s anti-corruption unit. His remit overlaps with the next Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), where, Rahman added, the ICC’s integrity team will again supervise match security.
Wood, a well-known power-hitting specialist who recently assisted Sri Lanka, has accepted a three-month contract aimed at sharpening stroke-play before Bangladesh’s next limited-overs assignments. While the timeline is brief, the BCB views the stint as a practical way to expose national and fringe batters to extra white-ball expertise.
Hemming’s return may attract the most local interest. “Tony Hemming has been appointed head of turf management for two years,” Rahman said. “All our international venues and curators will be under him. He will also undertake the process of training Bangladeshi curators. All the board directors had a lot of interest in bringing him back.” The Australian curator spent 12 months with the BCB before heading to Pakistan in 2024, and the board clearly values his pitch-preparation know-how.
There is, though, a jigsaw to complete. Shere Bangla’s long-serving curator, Gamini Silva, stays on for now, but as Rahman noted: “Hemming is one of the best curators in the world. Maybe he had a good experience with the BCB in the previous occasion, that’s why he agreed to come back. The turf management will run as Hemming will want. Time will tell if Gamini will stay or not. He has been given a 12-month extension.” In plain terms, Silva keeps his job for a year while Hemming sets the wider agenda.
Beyond staffing, the board reshaped Bangladesh’s first-class map by promoting Mymensingh, one of the country’s newer administrative divisions, to the National Cricket League (NCL). That move ends the 14-year stint of Dhaka Metropolis, originally created to round out team numbers. “Mymensingh is one of the country’s newest divisions,” Rahman said. “They will play in the NCL first-class tournament from the coming season. They will replace Dhaka Metropolis. Mymensingh will play all divisional tournaments though we can’t accommodate them in the upcoming NCL T20s as the schedule has been made. Mymensingh will play in the T20 tournament from the next edition.”
Taken together, the appointments and structural tweak underline the BCB’s focus on long-term infrastructure—security, pitches, player development—rather than short-term headlines. Results, as always, will tell their own story once the next domestic season gets underway.
