BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
AS Tatenda Taibu takes up a coaching role at the Bangladesh Institute of Sports Education, he says the opportunity to potentially shape the career of future international cricket stars is one that excites him.
The 38-year-old former Zimbabwe captain was last week finally unveiled as the new batting coach at the revered institution, which as been credited for producing some of Bangladesh’s top cricketing talents.
Taibu had agreed in principle to take up the coaching job in Bangladesh, but he was yet to get started due to the restrictions which were in place in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He finally arrived in the subcontinent nation on Monday from his base in Liverpool, England and immediately put pen to paper before starting his mandatory quarantine period ahead of the start of his coaching tenure.
Taibu told The Sports Hub in an exclusive interview on Friday that he was excited by the prospect of contributing towards the development of cricket in Bangladesh.
The legendary former wicketkeeper batsman is a hugely popular figure in Bangladesh, a country he affectionately considers as his second home.
“The agreement was done several months back. However, the world is dealing with something bigger so there has been several postponements,” Taibu said.
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“I finally arrived four days ago and I’m still in institutional quarantine for another week before I get started. I’m regarded highly in this part of the world, so I love working here,” said Taibu.
The Bangladesh Institute of Sports Education, also known as Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) is considered to be the breeding ground of many international cricketers in the subcontinent nation.
Some of the top Bangladesh cricketers, who have come through the ranks of the Bangladesh Institute of Sports include star allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar, who are all key members of the Tigers side which recently completed a series sleep across all formats against Zimbabwe last month.
Taibu said he hopes to leave a mark during his tenure in the country by helping to mentor the next generation of Bangladesh cricket stars.
“The institution is well-known for producing extremely talented players into the youth and national team. For example,they are credited for developing world class players such as Shakib Al Hasan and many more.
“I’m here to make sure that those talented cricketers are a finished product when they get selected into the various national teams with only experience left to acquire,” said the former Zimbabwe captain.
Taibu will work alongside former Australia’s high performance coach Andy Cottam who was appointed to a similar role at the BKSP.
Taibu has recently been coaching at St Mary’s College in Liverpool, where his son, Tatenda Junior, is part of the school’s team.
“I’ve been coaching at St Mary’s College where my older boy goes to, but as you know, that was expected it was affected when the pandemic hit. So that has left me spending a lot of time with the family and my two boys, who are now keen cricketers and very good for that matter,” he said.
The former wicketkeeper-batsman, who made his international debut in 2001, became the youngest-ever Test captain in 2004 at the age of only 21.
His feat was later broken by Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan against Bangladesh in 2019.
Taibu, who had a topsy-turvy international cricket career with Zimbabwe, also took early retirement from all forms of the game in 2012 to focus on church work.
He represented Zimbabwe in 28 Tests, 150 ODIs and 17 T20Is and scored over 5 000 runs for his country and he is recognised as the country’s most successful wicketkeeper-batsman after Andy Flower.
After a stint away from the sport Taibu, however, returned in 2016 as player and coach for Hightown St Mary’s CC, a club in the UK.
He was then named convenor of selectors in 2017 for the Zimbabwe national side but the Chevrons’ failure to qualify for the 2019 ICC World Cup resulted in him being sacked by the board along with head coach Heath Streak and skipper Graeme Cremer.
Taibu again returned to cricket at the age of 35 as he debuted for the Badureliya Sports Club, a Sri Lankan first-class side in 2018, but he is now looking to give priority to his coaching career with an ambition of becoming a prominent cricket coach.
