'Give them opportunities' - Herath on lack of legspinners in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's outgoing spin bowling coach Rangana Herath can be a satisfied man considering the spinners played a vital role in winning the first Test at home against New Zealand. The Sri Lankan had a long chat with Cricbuzz during which he spoke about the different coaching philosophies of Russell Domingo and Chandika Hathurusingha, Bangladesh's inability to produce leg spinners and a lot more.

Here are the excerpts:

How was your stint with Bangladesh?

I worked with Bangladesh for two and half years and I enjoyed a lot. As a coach there were some challenges as well but there was lot to celebrate as well. So I must thank BCB for giving me this opportunity. I enjoyed a lot with the players and the team environment.

You just mentioned there were challenges. What were the major challenges you faced as a coach?

We play in different conditions and different venues and those are the challenges; how you adapt to those conditions and environments and how you adjust your technique and sometimes mentality as well. So in that sense we have some challenges but we managed to get it done most of the times. A few areas to improve remain and we need to work on them actually.

For most part of your tenure, you didn't have Shakib Al Hasan consistently in the team as he was playing some games and missing others. How did you motivate other spinners to fill in?

As you said, Shakib is our main player and one of the best all-rounders going around but whoever it is who plays as a spinner, he has to be very accurate and very responsible. That is