Media gathered today to the Sri Lanka cricket headquarters at Maitland Crescent as the newly appointed head coach of Sri Lanka cricket addressed the media on his new appointment.
It was a smile of pride in the past Sri Lankan skipper as it is official that, Marvan Atapatthu is the newly appointed Sri Lanka cricket head coach. Atapatthu after his recent success as the “acting” head coach seemed to be an easy pick as the head of the coaching staff. With him taking up the responsibilities as coach, it is a common belief in all minds that the team will continue its successful form throughout until the upcoming ICC Cricket world cup.
Marvan thanked the SLC for giving him the opportunity to take up the duties of head coach and said he looks forward to working with this young and promising team.
The floor was open to the media to straighten their doubts and queries early. One noteworthy question being on the pace master Lasith Malinga who is said to be out for the world cup due to his surgery in Australia. “He had it but he played with it until it was high time to get it cured for good, if all goes well we should have Lasith back by January” said Atapatthu.
On the point of Sachithra Senanyake Atapatthu said “Sachithra has done good work both locally as well as in Australia and it is just a matter of fixing up a date for his test, it’s great that the SLC has granted him permission to play in the local tournaments”.
In Sri Lanka it is common practice to associate sports with interference and politics, the new coach says that he will not let this take place in the sport while he is in charge. There are common allegations that the final team can be changed by the minister. When questioned on this matter the newly appointed coach rejected them and said “I don’t see it happening in Sri Lanka cricket, I promise to have complete transparency in whatever decision I make”.
Another dilemma in the minds of many Sri Lankans is that the national team should be coached by a foreigner, local coaches are said to be not cared for and under rated this may be due to the long suppression of the British and the Dutch who had supreme rule over the island and whatever they said was considered correct. However this should not be the case, Atapatthu sees it the same way, “I personally think that if a coach is talented he should be selected regardless of whether he is local or foreign. I applied because I was confident in myself and I think we should set aside all these allegations and different mind sets and work towards a common goal of taking Sri Lanka cricket forward”.
Atapatthu also commented on the poor form of Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne, “They are two of the most talented and gifted players in Sri Lanka who have developed immensely in the past 3 years although the scores haven’t shown it which is in a way disappointing, looking at Sanga or Mahela at the start of their careers they weren’t he most successful. In the first 14 matches in comparison with Sanga and Chandimal, Chandimal is actually 10 runs ahead. We should not judge a player from his school level performance because it is much different from the international arena”.
Marvan has yet not been showed his contract neither the clauses in it, this is said to happen the coming Monday although, his period of service has been notified along with his role as the national coach. Marvan will have an arsenal of immense talent leading up to the world cup as the hopes of the nation come alive in 2015.
