Near enough not good enough for Bangladesh: Law

Stuart Law, who stepped down as Bangladesh coach, has said merely challenging the top teams in international cricket is "not good enough" for Bangladesh and that working hard was the only way to go to win more games. Law resigned for personal reasons after nine months with Bangladesh, the highlight of his tenure being their impressive show in the Asia Cup this year, when they beat India and Sri Lanka and went down by just two runs in the final against Pakistan.

"Near enough is not good enough," Law told ESPNcricinfo. "You're never good enough, you always try to be the best you possibly can. I will miss them a hell of a lot and I wish them all the best but there's no substitute for hard work."

Law started as coach on the tour of Zimbabwe in August 2011, when Bangladesh were beaten in the only Test that marked the hosts' return to the longest format after a period of self-imposed isolation. "As a coach you're not going to walk in and have success immediately," Law said. "You have to work out how the players respond in certain pressure situations. You have to work out how to treat them, you can't treat everybody the same. It is totally different to how you treat people in other parts of the world.

"I think to get trust between me and the players; there were a lot of things, not just one or two."

There was some disappointment, Law said, in him leaving at a time when "we started to see the plans come into fruition, what we talk about being acted out in the field. The boys are listening and responding and respecting the way we are talking about our cricket."

His focus, while with Bangladesh, was to create a strong collective unit, Law said, speaking from his experience in Queensland. "The culture we created in Queensland had everyone on equal terms. It was more of a family and that's what I wanted to create here.

"The way that superstars are treated in this part of the world, I've never seen it before outside this part of the world. To their credit, Shakib [Al Hasan] and Tamim [Iqbal] have gone out of their zone to be part of the team. We saw the rewards of that in the Asia Cup."

Law said he would continue his association with cricket. "It's not a done deal for me by any stretch of the imagination. I get a buzz out of watching players replicate what we've been talking about. I'm moving back to Brisbane, my hometown. I have applied for a position there so I am just waiting to hear on the outcome of that."