Mexican side Veracruz have confirmed the Twitter account of club president Fidel Kuri Grajales was hacked by a group of angry supporters on Tuesday.

The account was hacked by "true fans" who attacked the players and the club hierarchy after Veracruz failed to win in 31 matches in all competitions.

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Under the president's account, the supporters posted: "We want the players to feel the shirt, the poor management of the club has been a cancer in this institution.

"Starting with this account, we're going to take back our club and our badge. This account has been taken over by true fans of Club Deportivo Veracruz. Stop tarnishing the badge!"

The messages were followed with the hashtags #we'vehadenough and #I'llbethereforyou.

The club released a statement two hours later confirming that the president's account had been hacked and they were working on solving the problem.

Veracruz have lost three of their opening four matches this season and find themselves at the bottom of the league table.

Last year's semifinalists Ajax clung on for a tense 0-0 draw in searing heat away to APOEL Nicosia in the first leg of their Champions League playoff tie on Tuesday.

Slavia Prague won 1-0 at Romania's Cluj thanks to a spectacular Lukas Masopust goal in another of the ties which will earn the winners a lucrative place in the Champions League group stage while Club Brugge also won by a single goal at Austria's LASK Linz.

Ajax have managed to keep the bulk of last season's team together, with Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong the two major departures ths summer, and fielded seven of the players who started the second leg of their dramatic semifinal against Tottenham Hotspur in May.

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Despite a bright start, they were indebted to goalkeeper Andre Onana and played the last 10 minutes with 10 men after Noussair Mazraoui was sent off.

Musa Suleiman caused Ajax all sorts of problems and went agonisingly close to giving Cypriot side APOEL a first-half lead after he cut in from the right, played a one-two and spun into the box but sent his shot wide of the far post.

Shortly afterwards, Nicholas Ioannou saw an effort deflected for a corner.

APOEL increased the pressure after the break as Onana parried a powerful Lucas Souza shot before another effort was cleared off the line and an Andrija Pavlovic header bounced off the crossbar.

Jordanian Suleiman volleyed into the side-netting from close range and Onana then made a brilliant one-handed save to deny Souza again.

Mazraoui was given a second yellow card for a reckless sliding tackle but Ajax survived with their goal intact.

Slavia broke the deadlock in Romania with a remarkable goal when Nicolae Stanciu floated a corner to the edge of the penalty area for Masopust to volley effortlessly into the net.

An early penalty from Hans Vanaken gave Bruges their win away to Austrian outsiders LASK Linz who are bidding to qualify for the group stage for the first time.

Lois Openda went down under a challenge from Linz captain Gernot Trauner and the referee pointed to the spot, finally confirming his decision two minutes later after a lengthy VAR review.

Brugge survived a let-off when Simon Deli nearly turned the ball into his own net although the Belgians could easily have added to their tally in the second half.

Paris Saint-Germain have rejected a €190 million offer from Barcelona that would see Neymar return to Nou Camp on a loan, sources have told ESPN FC.

Barca offered an upfront sum of €40m cash for the loan with a future obligation of €150m to permanently sign the Brazilian star from the French champions next summer, sources said.

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Another source close to the negotiation told ESPN FC that Barca's offer was indeed rejected, but claimed that the offer only reached €170m, and was for a two-year loan with an option to permanently sign after each year.

Sources had told ESPN on Monday that PSG were going to reject the La Liga side's offer whenever it came through, and it appears that has been the case.

PSG's Qatari owners have been disappointed by the attitude of Neymar this summer and are ready to let him leave, but only if they can recoup as much of the €222m they spent to bring him to Paris from Barcelona in the summer of 2017.

There is also the belief in Paris that Barcelona will not be able to pay the transfer fee in one lump sum next summer should they make the move permanent and would ask to pay in annual installments, which is not ideal for the French club.

PSG sporting director Leonardo is trying to get as much money in cash as possible for Neymar, hoping to recoup at least €200m. The situation was further complicated by Philippe Coutinho's loan move to Bayern Munich on Monday, making a potential deal for Neymar harder to pull off as PSG had hoped Coutinho could be a makeweight in some kind of cash-plus-players deal.

Barcelona also facing a shortage of attackers after Ousmane Dembele was ruled out for five weeks on Monday with a hamstring injury. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez are also coming back from distinct calf injuries.

Neymar still wants to leave the Parc des Princes this summer and his preference is to go back to Barcelona where he played between 2013 and 2017.

Sources say Neymar is trying to stay positive but he knows that a deal to see him returning to the Camp Nou is getting more and more difficult.

Neymar, who continues to train on his own away from the first team, has not played in either of PSG's two opening Ligue 1 matches so far this season, with Leonardo saying that he will not be involved until his situation is resolved.

ESPN FC reporters Moises Llorens and Sam Marsden contributed to this report.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Clay Meschke had seen the belt sit on a shelf at his local skate shop for a while.

It was like a fanny pack for beer, with six insulated holders across the front and snaps in the back. He knew he needed it, but for what? Though he wasn't sure, every time the 26-year-old went in, the belt was still there, untouched, unsold. Finally, one day he offered $10 for it. Sold.

"I kind of just kept it around for moments like this," Meschke said.

On Friday night, Meschke found a use for it, stocking it full of $1 Bud Lights at the Phoenix Rising's Dollar Beer Night, the popular promotion that has become a local legend not just because of the cheap beer but because of success that has followed.

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The Rising haven't lost in three years of Dollar Beer Night promotions, extending their record to 13-0-0 on Friday with a 4-2 win over Reno 1868 FC in a clash of the top two teams in the United Soccer League's Western Conference.

The Rising's win, which improved their hold on first place in the West, also extended two other streaks. It was their 14th consecutive win, which added to their league record, and increased their unbeaten streak at home to 15 games overall. And, in typical Dollar Beer Night fashion, it was done with a dramatic flare as they converted two penalty kicks and added a third goal from defender Mustapha Dumbuya all in a span of 20 minutes in the second half.

By then, most of the 7,036 in attendance were full of cheap beer.

Some 20,000 cans of Bud Light were sold Friday night, including four for Meschke and four to his friend, Tim Barron. About 12 minutes before kickoff at Casino Arizona Stadium in south Scottsdale, Meschke was walking outside the bleachers with his beer holster fully stocked and one can in his hand. That was Round 1, though it was too early for him to decide how many more beers would be in his future.

"Let's face it: dollar beer," Meschke said. "Everybody's kind of excited."

The Rising's Dollar Beer Nights have accomplished everything the franchise had hoped for when they were devised two years ago. Four minutes after the gates opened at 6 p.m. on Friday, the line at the largest beer stand closest to the entrance was already 16 people deep. At that point, temperatures were still 108 degrees and the sun was still more than an hour from setting. Though cheap, beer wasn't going to keep anyone hydrated. But it didn't matter. The flow of fans passing over single dollar bills in return for a 12-ounce can was constant. One mom used her can to cool down her young daughter, putting it on her forehead much to the little girl's satisfaction.

Fans had options, too. They could line up at that permanent beer stand, which smartly divided its lines into cash and charge. Or they could bombard the rolling beer carts, one of which was set up 45 steps in front of one stadium entrance to capitalize on the heat, the day of the week and the price. It worked. Fans made a beeline right to it, cash in hand. When that stand had to restock, it could barely make it back to its original position before getting stopped by thirsty supporters. Finally, cases were brought out to them so they could remain on the ground, those carts capable of holding eight 30 packs (or 240 beers) at a time.

At one point, there were three beer stands within a span of 50 feet.

The club's limit is four beers (48oz.) per purchase but no limits on purchases and most fans, at least early in the evening, carried one or two. But as the night wore on, more fans opted for convenience, buying three or four at a time. The trick, then, was how to carry them.

Seven minutes before kickoff, there were 17 people in line at the big stand. Inside the stadium, the Rising's official supporters' section at the south end was completely full by time the game started at 7:30 p.m., but not the other seats. The sections behind the benches were about a third and other sections across from them were about half-full. But that's become the norm on Dollar Beer Nights. Fans were streaming in, with lines at the entrances until the 27th minute.

As a heat wave -- yes, even Arizona has them -- engulfed Phoenix, the crowd Friday wasn't as large as it has been in the past but according to Phoenix winger Solomon Asante, it was every bit as mighty. Fans from multiple Phoenix groups, with names like Los Bandidos and the Red Fury, stood the entire game, most on the bleacher seating and sometimes two or three deep at the fence line. Despite the chaos, supporters were conscientious about the environment. Piles of cans laid together, ready to be picked up after the game, and bags of empty cans made it easy to recycle.

After Asante's second successful penalty to seal the Rising's 13th consecutive Dollar Beer Night win, red smoke bombs filled the air, floating across the field, thick enough to block out the lights.

"I only come to these games for Dollar Beer Night," said Sonya Spagnola, of Scottsdale.

It was September 2017, the NFL and college football were in full swing, temperatures in Arizona were still hovering around 100 degrees and Sam Doerr was trying to figure out how to get fans to show up at a midweek game in early October.

He was a few months into his job as the Rising's vice president of sales and marketing when he was sitting in the team's Scottsdale headquarters with his staff, comprised of mostly recent graduates from Arizona State University. The game Doerr was focused on was on a Wednesday night. Not ideal to get either group in the stands since it was a big youth soccer night or the casual fan, since it was in the middle of their work week.

Then he posed a question to his young coworkers: Is Arizona State in session? Of course ASU was in session -- it was September, after all -- but why did Doerr care? Its campus was about two miles from Casino Arizona Field. And Doerr had a thought: What do most college students like more than anything? Cheap beer.

Doerr knew what he needed to do.

Before moving to Arizona, Doerr worked for the Spurs Sports & Entertainment in San Antonio, Texas, which owned an American Hockey League team in addition to the NBA team. There, he had organized "dollar drink nights" that led to increased ticket sales and "a little bit of a different atmosphere." Doerr wanted to do the same in Phoenix, so he worked out the details with Bud Light and struck a deal with Lyft offering 20-30 percent discounts for fans at the games and giving the team "free credits" to use on fans in need of a ride home.

Other safeguards included and end to beer sales at the 80th minute plus a "Pub to Pitch" program in which shuttles pick up and drop off fans at local bars and the stadium. The free services averages 500 riders every Dollar Beer Night; the team also pays for additional law enforcement to make sure everyone stays safe at the games.

And so, Doerr had built the Rising's first Dollar Beer Night. All he had to was wait for them to come.

"We ran out [of beer] the first night," Doerr said. "We got a lot of grief for it, but we didn't expect it. It was a midweek game."

That night, the Rising sold about 5,000 Bud Lights just after halftime. To keep up with the demand, the team started selling Four Peaks, a local craft beer, for a dollar instead. "We didn't want to lose the fans or momentum," Doerr said. On night one of the run, October 4, 2017, the Rising beat the Tulsa Roughnecks FC, 4-3, in dramatic fashion in front of 5,681 fans -- almost 2,000 more than the previous midweek game. Six goals were scored in an 18-minute stretch in the first half alone.

Phoenix Rising midfielder Joey Calistri played for Tulsa back then and had three assists that night. In a weird twist of fate, Calistri, who didn't know the correlation between the match and the beer promo, almost single-handedly stopped the Rising's streak before it started. He scored what would have been the deciding goal in stoppage time but was offside.

"It was crazy," Calistri said of that first Dollar Beer Night game. "It was insane. People were hammered. You'd go to take a set piece and you got guys just screaming in your ear. It's awesome. And, obviously, now that it's our fans, it's even better because it's a huge advantage."

Said Doerr: "What played into our hands was the game was like it was drunk, too."

That game was a preview of what was to come. The Rising knew it was on to something but didn't quite know what. It took them until the end of last season to figure it out. When they looked back on Dollar Beer Nights in 2017 and 2018, they knew they were 9-0-0 but what stood out was the upswing in attendance. On Wednesday nights, the crowd never topped out above 5,939 and their final two Wednesday Dollar Beer Nights had crowds of 5,017 and 5,307. Friday nights, however, were quite different. Attendance on every Friday Dollar Beer Night in 2018 was more than 7,000.

Here's the catch: Capacity at Casino Arizona Stadium is 6,200 and any ticket sold beyond that is standing room only. The Rising's two highest-attended games were the playoff games last season, both of which fell on a Friday night. After looking at 2017 and 2018, the Rising knew there was only one thing to do. When it set the schedule for 2019, they put every Dollar Beer Night on a Friday.

"It's just kind of like folklore, almost," said Rising coach Rick Schantz.

The team has even made Dollar Beer Night merchandise. It wears its black Copper State-themed alternate jerseys on Friday nights, making the most of the "blackout" theme. Bud Light made a mockumentary about the promotion. "The Dan Patrick Show" has named the Dollar Beer Night shirts "best of the week" twice. At the last Dollar Beer Night, Bud Light sent the Bud Knight to enhance the fun.

The Rising sold between 18,000 and 20,000 beers at its July 19 Dollar Beer Night: about five times what it sells on any other night. Then there's the quality of soccer on display, too. Not only is the Rising 13-0-0 on Dollar Beer Night since 2017, but it has scored 44 goals and allowed only 11 with eight shutouts. Their average margin of victory is 2.58 goals.

"It's always exciting in the stadium, but Friday nights is a different level," Rising general manager Bobby Dulle said. "Anytime you can play in front of a very passionate, loud fan base like ours, you're going to have a home field advantage. Throw it on Dollar Beer Night and you even get more buzz in the stadium.

"Everyone just kind of maybe picks it up a notch or two."

The crowd gets goalkeeper Zac Lubin and some of his teammates buzzing on Friday nights quite literally. "I wouldn't be surprised if a bit rained on me," Lubin said.

Sometimes, it's directly poured on him and his teammates. After games, players walk around the fences high-fiving fans. In return, some fans try to pour beers into the players' mouths like the drinking game, waterfall. By the end of games, the supporters section smells like a "stale bar," Lubin said.

"[Our fans are] dancing and singing the whole game," he said. "You get that feeling of just like energy and they help us. Obviously, it shows when we're scoring so many goals and we're undefeated.

"I think other teams know coming into it, like, 'It's gonna be a battle tonight. We're going to have to battle the team but also like the crowd and fans.' When you're in front of that South End, man, you can't hear anything. So if you're the opposing goalkeeper, I can't even imagine. Like it's loud for me, but when they're shouting at you and talking smack to you the whole time, I can't imagine trying to organize your defenses. It's almost impossible."

There's also a practical benefit from the increase support and energy on Friday nights.

"We talk about it all the time," Schantz said. "When you look at the metrics of football and soccer, you're running 12 miles a game and some of these guys are doing upward of, you know, 1,500 sprint meters. When you're as tired as you can be, we always say, 'Imagine how tired the other team is.' Add the heat, but then add the fans on our side and that extra shot of adrenaline -- the fans just want that goal and they want you to win so badly. So, it's a massive advantage for us."

It's also helped keep the Rising relevant after Didier Drogba retired.

Drogba was a soccer legend when he arrived in Arizona for what proved to be the final stop in his 20-year playing career. Whenever the striker, who won multiple Premier League titles and the UEFA Champions League with English side Chelsea, did something notable on the field, Doerr said the social media impressions skyrocketed into the millions. When Drogba scored, Chelsea shared it.

"Dollar Beer Night has filled the void for Didier," Doerr added.

Before a recent game, Schantz walked into the locker room with an open Bud Light in his jacket pocket. With every step, beer spilled out and soaked his jacket. He pulled it out during his speech in dramatic fashion and asked his team what that can meant to them.

"Immortality," one player yelled out.

"We all kind of laughed that, on Dollar Beer Night, we're immortal," Schantz said. "We can't lose."

What could possibly happen next?

Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian wondered that on Monday; a day without training or travel commitments afforded him the chance to catch his breath and reflect on everything that has happened during a "crazy" 14 days, which contained enough incidents -- including an awful gaffe at Southampton -- to cover an entire career.

Has more ever happened to a "backup" goalkeeper in such a short space of time? Instead of the usual spell of settling in, getting to know his teammates and learning the nuances of his new team, Adrian was pressed into action on the season's opening weekend due to Alisson's injury. Since then, he's picked up two league wins and was integral to the Reds' UEFA Super Cup victory, the first major trophy of his career. The stunning start to his time at Anfield has already made him a cult hero.

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During the early hours of last Thursday in Istanbul, Adrian stitched himself into the fabric of Liverpool's proud European history. He thwarted Tammy Abraham with a trailing right foot to win the Super Cup against Chelsea 5-4 on penalties, enabling the club to lift a second continental trophy under Jurgen Klopp following June's Champions League triumph.

In that match, the Spaniard squeezed the multiple highs and lows a goalkeeper can experience into a manic 120 minutes. He produced a crucial save at the feet of Mateo Kovacic on 32 minutes, before being beaten by Olivier Giroud's low finish, which skidded underneath him. Adrian did brilliantly to thwart Abraham with his feet in extra time, but then was harshly adjudged to have impeded the 20-year-old in the area and was sat down by Jorginho's cool technique from the resulting spot-kick.

Adrian then denied Mason Mount late on before his moment of glory arrived. When the 32-year-old saved from Abraham in the shootout, grabbed his towel and slid to his knees awaiting the celebratory scrum from his teammates, it felt as though he was living somebody else's life.

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Adrian's individual honour roll had read zero before that Super Cup trophy and only a few weeks earlier, he was training at semi-professional side Unión Deportiva Pilas in Spain's sixth tier, with personal goalkeeping coach Pedro Illanes and a physical trainer, to keep in shape after running down his contract at West Ham United.

He knew he would receive offers during the summer, especially from teams around Spain, and so made the decision to work out in his birthplace of Seville. Adrian was on the verge of accepting a proposal from Real Valladolid before a "bombshell" call from Liverpool considerably altered his trajectory.

By the end of last season it was clear that if Simon Mignolet departed Anfield in search of regular starts, the club would replace him with an equally experienced keeper to deputise for Alisson. Adrian was seen as the "perfect solution" (to borrow Klopp's description), having made 150 appearances during a six-year spell with West Ham. He was familiar with the demands of the league, had dealt with pressure situations and did not allow mistakes to affect him from week to week.

The club's homework on him was extensive: they had watched him at Real Betis and followed him with a closer eye when he moved to east London in 2013. They liked his anticipation, distribution and courage: he had huge character, which is an important element in an unforgiving position. When Club Brugge made Liverpool an offer totalling £8 million for Mignolet, a call was put into Adrian immediately to say he was the first choice to be Klopp's new No.2.

The "bombshell" conversation, as the keeper labelled it, came as a surprise: he was not expecting to return to England, especially to join the champions of Europe. There was no hesitation from Adrian once the offer came, only details to sort out: He offered apologies to Real Valladolid and two days before his Aug. 5 move to Merseyside, he informed Pilas' sporting director Jose Maria Moreno that he would no longer need to use their facilities. That goodbye was followed with a load of bags that contained his old kits, boots and other memorabilia as well as a handwritten letter and gift card.

"In gratitude for your hospitality and availability, I want to present UD Pilas with this voucher for sports materials and equipment to continue growing," it read. "Thank you so much for everything! I wish you all the best."

The gift certificate helped the club purchase 20 balls and other necessities for the season, the time spent with the goalie turning Moreno into a Liverpool fan. (The sporting director couldn't bear to watch the shootout against Chelsea, but went wild when his son told him Adrian had saved the decisive penalty to win the Super Cup.)

How Adrian performed in the Super Cup, despite not having time to prepare, was "incredible," according to the manager, who saluted him as a "proper personality in the dressing room as well."

A few hours later, however, Klopp was left sweating on his new "mentality monster," whose ankle was significantly swollen by the time he woke up. The keeper was immediately a doubt for Saturday's trip to Southampton; he'd been hurt when a spectator breached the barricade during the post-match celebrations in Istanbul and ran across the pitch to evade the security guards before slipping and clattering into the new Liverpool No.1.

On the four-and-a-half-hour flight back to Liverpool that Thursday afternoon, head physio Lee Nobes worked intensively on the affected area to ensure Adrian would pass a late fitness test to start at Southampton.

His hero status was eroded a little in the ensuing 2-1 win at St Mary's as his clearance from Virgil van Dijk's back pass ricocheted off Danny Ings' shin and into the net on 83 minutes after Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino fired the Reds ahead, leading to a tense finish on the south coast.

Yet Klopp wasn't concerned, having watched Alisson's big mistake early on for Liverpool against Leicester City last season. After Saturday's match, he revealed he'd already cleared the air with his new keeper.

"Yes. I told him, 'You finally arrived, welcome!' Ali did the same. Obviously it's a goalie thing at Liverpool, no problem with that as long as we win the games. All good.

"Adrian had a swollen ankle and we played too many balls back to him in that period. I was happy with everything he did today, all the saves, all that stuff. The other players have to then feel more the responsibility for the build-up and cannot give all the balls back to him and hope the pain killers still help or whatever.

"I don't think the goal was because of that, but a few other balls were. He is completely good with his feet. If you would have seen his ankle on Thursday after we left the plane then you would say even the pass before the Southampton goal was better than you would have expected! It is all fine."

Liverpool are confident it won't impact him much, something also evidenced by his time at West Ham.

"How he reacts to the mistake, I think that is more important than the mistake itself," midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum said, before reminding that the new recruit has been "in for not even two weeks, so we have to get used to each other." It hasn't helped Adrian that he is between the posts for a Liverpool side that have been atypically open, allowing the opposition to create a high volume of chances this season.

Chelsea had 20 shots during the Super Cup, with 13 inside the box, while promoted side Norwich fired in 12 in total at Anfield, with eight coming inside the area. Nine of Southampton's 14 efforts were also from the 18-yard zone. With Arsenal next up and given their attacking weaponry -- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shared the league's Golden Boot with Mane and Mohamed Salah last season -- Liverpool will need to tighten up, but Adrian will know more than anyone that he needs to be prepared for everything.

As he put it himself after defeating Chelsea, "goalkeeper life is like this."

Loughborough Lightning 157 for 7 (Adams 50, Ecclestone 3-17) beat Lancashire Thunder 74 for 6 (Gordon 3-18) by 35 runs (DLS method)

Loughborough Lightning secured a third successive Kia Super League win with a 35-run victory over winless Lancashire Thunder on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method at Old Trafford.

The Lightning's victory was underpinned by a superb recovery with the bat. Having lost early wickets they scored at more than 10 an over after the Powerplay to make 157 for 7 - Georgia Adams the standout with 50.

After a bright start, the Thunder lost key wickets and were stifled by a strong bowling display and brilliant fielding by Loughborough, who eased to victory as the rain came. Lancashire are now mathematically unable to qualify for Finals Day.

Tahlia McGrath set about trying to make light work of the chase of 158, and crucially getting Thunder ahead of the DLS rate, smashing two huge sixes into the stands off Kathryn Bryce in the fourth over.

But Hayley Matthews hit back in the sixth over with two wickets. First McGrath fell for 26 to a superb one-handed grab by Chamari Atapattu at mid-off before Matthews took an equally spectacular caught-and-bowled effort to remove Sophia Dunkley for a duck.

Thunder were 34 for 2 after the Powerplay. South Africa allrounder Sune Luus batted well to guide her side to 60 for 2 at halfway, but two wickets fell in consecutive overs as Harmanpreet Kaur was caught in the deep for 7 and Emma Lamb was bowled for a duck.

As the rain began to pour down on Old Trafford, Lightning struck two decisive blows as Kirstie Gordon took wickets in consecutive balls with Luus caught for 30 and Sophie Ecclestone for a first-ball duck.

Gordon was deprived a hat-trick delivery as the weather cut the match short with Thunder 74 for 6 after 13.4 overs of their innings.

Having won the toss, Thunder enjoyed an excellent powerplay. Kate Cross trapped England team-mate Amy Jones lbw for a duck in the second over, before Ecclestone struck twice to remove Matthews and Atapattu.

Loughborough were 18 for 3 after six overs but Mignon du Preez counterattacked, launching Alex Hartley down the ground for six. Forty-one runs came in four overs after the Powerplay, as du Preez and Georgia Elwiss put on a 47-run partnership in just 31 balls.

Lamb struck to bowl Du Preez for 18 but Elwiss continued the aggression, smashing a huge six over midwicket. The England star fell for 38, brilliantly caught by McGrath as Cross claimed her second wicket to make it 72 for 5. But Loughborough's recovery was not stalled by the loss of wickets as Adams and Bryce took up the baton, reaching their 50 partnership in 29 balls.

Both were dismissed in the final over of the innings - Bryce bowled by for an 18-ball 32 and Adams run out for a superb 50 from 33 balls - but their partnership of 82 in 45 balls proved crucial.

Russell Domingo's appointment as the seventh Bangladesh head coach in eight years does suggest a somewhat rough next few months for the South African, but he sounded upbeat and up for the challenge in his first interaction with the media after reaching Dhaka. The theme was adapting to Bangladesh's ways, and not expecting the players to adapt to his style, while also stressing that "monitoring the players just beneath the national side" would be one of his targets.

No Bangladesh head coach has completed his tenure since Jamie Siddons left in 2011, and it has been a bit of a rough and tumble at the best of times. But, if making the right noises is a good start, Domingo played it well to begin with.

"We [the overseas coaching contingent, including new bowling coach Charl Langeveldt] can't expect Bangladesh cricket to adapt to us, we've got to adapt to Bangladesh cricket. And we've got to find a way to make our processes and our systems work with the cricket organisation and with the players," Domingo said. "So we might need to alter the way we go about things to fit in with the culture, more so than the culture changing to fit in with us.

"My immediate goal is to make some sort of connection with the players, to understand the players, build some relationships over the next week or two - I think that's massively important, to try and gain the players' trust, see how the players go about their work."

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With the domestic structure in a bit of a shambles, the emergence of quality new players hasn't always happened in an ideal manner. This was an aspect Domingo had also stressed on in his presentation to the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

"Because I have worked at a lot of different levels of cricket, from Under-15 to Under-17 to domestic cricket to international cricket, I think I am very aware of how important feeder systems are," he explained. "That's where your next tier of players come from. I want to place a lot of emphasis on monitoring the players just beneath the national side, and when there are opportunities to play some of those players, you need to take those opportunities.

"And it can't be for one or two games, you need to try and give players a little bit of a run. Young players especially, so they can find their feet in international cricket. We've got a good national side but it's important that we are evaluating the players just below the national side to sustain the success of Bangladesh cricket.

"After our [triangular T20I] series against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, I'm hoping to go to Sri Lanka to watch the 'A' side play. It's impossible to watch all the cricket, there's no doubt about that. I've got to make sure I surround myself with people I can trust, selectors who are going to give me good inputs, connect with the high-performance coaches, with the 'A' side coaches, and find out who they think the best players are that we can invite closer to the national side."

"The test for me is going to be to find seamers that can bowl outside Bangladesh, that can bowl in conditions in South Africa, Australia" Charl Langeveldt

Bangladesh are a team on the ascendance, especially at home, where they have had some excellent results in the last few years. But an eighth-place finish at the recent World Cup - where Shakib Al Hasan almost single-handedly drove their fortunes - and then a 3-0 ODI series defeat in Sri Lanka has hurt the team and their legions of fans.

"I don't think they are a bad team because they lost to Sri Lanka. Touring straight after a World Cup is always going to be hard. Sri Lanka probably had a bit more to gain from it with a few players leaving, it was the last game for Lasith [Malinga], [Nuwan] Kulasekara was given a farewell, they had a bit more to prove," Domingo said. "The World Cup performances, I thought they played really well. They were really close to winning some of the games that they lost.

"You think of the game against New Zealand, maybe a missed run out [of Kane Williamson, by Mushfiqur Rahim] cost them the game. The margins of winning and losing international games are minimal, so … I think the team is really close to becoming a real force in world cricket. If they just make the right decisions, at the right times, on the right days, I don't think they are really very far off other sides at the moment.

"The log will say they ended in seventh [eighth], I think they played better than that. And I've been in international cricket long enough to know that sometimes the results can hinge on a decision here and there, so it's not always a fair reflection of where you are as a team. There were a lot of positives to come out of the World Cup that they can build on going forward for sure. There are a lot of areas they can improve in, but there were a lot of positives in the World Cup."

While Bangladesh have shown promise in 50-overs cricket, results in Test matches and T20Is have largely been disappointing, and that's something Domingo is aware of.

"It's hard to get any sort of rhythm in your Test match cricket if you're not playing that many Test matches. With the new Test Championship, that allows a team to focus a lot more on Test match cricket. We know often Bangladesh play one- or two-Test series. Hopefully now there will be three-Test series, four-Test series, which gets them more into that format," he said. "A lot of that focus now needs to move away from the World Cup and the 50-over format into Test match cricket. So it will be a good start to put a lot more focus and emphasis on our red-ball skills in the next couple of months.

"It's a massive opportunity for Bangladesh to compete regularly in Test match cricket. Their last Test match was maybe six months ago, we can hardly remember when it was. The more you play the better you're going to get in the format. That's probably where they have been lacking, they haven't played a lot of Test match cricket. If you look at England, Australia, India, and weigh those up against the number of Tests Bangladesh have played, you can understand why they are the leading sides in the world in that format."

To be a leading side, however, there are many creases to iron out, and a big one is the country's fast bowling. And that's where Langeveldt comes in.

"That's a challenge. When I was coaching in Afghanistan, it was a challenge there too. If you can rectify that, if you can strike with the new ball, it will make life easier for the spinners, and you will compete a lot more in 50-overs and Test cricket," he said. "It could be a small thing, a technical thing. The new ball is important in one-day cricket, even in Test cricket, especially in these conditions.

"The test for me is going to be to find seamers that can bowl outside Bangladesh, that can bowl in conditions in South Africa, Australia. If you look at India now, they've got three seamers and they are winning games in South Africa and Australia. We've got to find somehow seamers, so when we go abroad, in those conditions we can compete."