Pubudu Dassanayake, the former Sri Lanka and Canada wicketkeeper-batsman, was named as USA’s coach by ICC Americas on Thursday (September 8). In addition, Eric Parthen was appointed as the Project Manager by the regional body in order to oversee growth of cricket in the USA.
“I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to coach the USA, especially at what is an exciting time for USA cricket,” Dassanayake said. “I believe there is a great deal of talent here, it will just require hard work from everyone involved to get the best out of these players and hopefully see US cricket progress to higher honours.
“Our initial focus is on preparing the senior team for the WCL Division 4 event in LA next month. That is the first step on what I hope will be a successful journey.
Dassanayake, who represented Sri Lanka in 11 Tests and 16 One-Day Internationals in 1993 and 1994, played for Canada in 2005 and 2006, even captaining them in the Intercontinental Cup. After retirement as a player, he coached Canada for four years from 2007 to 2011, after which he worked with the Nepal cricket team from 2011 to 2015.
Dassanayake played a vital role along with Paras Khadka, in Nepal going from a WCL Division Four side to a top side to contend with in Associate cricket in the WCL Championship. The team also qualified for the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh in 2014, their first major ICC tournament, under his tutelage.
Parthen, who is a revered sports administrator in the USA, was previously the Executive Director of USA Boxing and Chief Executive of USA Taekwondo.
“I am thrilled to be joining ICC Americas at such a pivotal point in its history,” Parthen said. “My focus will be on working with the whole cricket family here in the US and creating a sustainable structure to allow cricket to flourish at all levels.
“We recently held a weekend workshop for stakeholders which centered on rebuilding the governance structure of the sport to unify it and provide the best possible foundations for growth. We are now using the insight from that event to assist the development a new constitution for the sport that focuses on governing, regulating, developing and promoting the cricket in the USA at all levels.
“In addition to this work we will also be moving our offices to Colorado Springs to ensure we’re better located to deliver for the whole sport and be nearer to other national sports governing bodies so we can continue to grow and develop as an organisation,” he added.
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