The ongoing Sri Lanka Cricket team coaching staff issue took a new turn on Friday, 2nd August when SLC made a fresh appeal to the country’s Sports Minister, Harin Fernando requesting an extension to carry out his directive.
“Sri Lanka Cricket’s Executive Committee today made an appeal to the Minister of Sports Honorable Harin Fernando to give time till the end of the New Zealand Series to carry out his ‘Directive’ to SLC; pertaining to the change of the ‘Coaching Staff’ of the National Team. “ SLC issuing a media communique stated.
Before the start of the recently-concluded Bangladesh ODI series, Sports Minister Harin Fernando wrote a stern letter to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) requesting for a complete overhaul in the national team’s coaching setup.
However, with less than two weeks to go for the start of Sri Lanka’s home series against New Zealand, which starts on 14th August with two Test matches in the ICC World Test Championship, SLC has not come into terms with Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha, who still has around 16 months left in his contract and is not ready to resign from his post.
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SLC is clearly not happy with their colossal investment on Hathurusingha, who took over as Head Coach in December 2017. However, both parties have still not been able to come to an amicable settlement because SLC will have to pay a hefty sum if they want to terminate Hathurusingha’s contract.
“I have another 16 months,” Hathurusingha told reporters last month after returning to Colombo from the World Cup in England. “I hope to remain until my contract runs out.”
According to reliable sources, Hathurusingha is also having discussions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for a possible return, after Bangladesh didn’t extend Steve Rhodes’ contract at the end of their World Cup campaign.
“We are dealing with professionals and there are contractual obligations. We have had a bad reputation for hiring and firing coaches and we have to settle this in the right way,” Sri Lanka Cricket Secretary Mohan De Silva said before the start of the Bangladesh series.
Steve Rixon and Jon Lewis, who held the positions of fielding coach and batting coach respectively in the past six months only had contracts until the end of the 2019 World Cup hence both of them were not part of the coaching setup against Bangladesh at home.
With Hathurusingha set to be at the helm for the New Zealand series, Rumesh Ratnayake will take care of the bowlers yet again. Manoj Abeywickrama will also continue his duties as fielding coach, while Nick Lee is set for an extension as the Trainer.
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Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Cricket will continue their hunt for a new head coach, which is now set to be completed at the end of the New Zealand series. Dean Jones, Grant Flower, Tom Moody, Russel Domingo and Mickey Arthur are all names being discussed by SLC, ThePapare.com reliably learns.
“Mahela Jayawardene said that he’s not yet ready to come and work with SLC. According to what I heard, SLC is in talks with three-four top coaches at the moment. One coach is free and is ready to come any moment but the best candidate needs more time due to his other commitments. I am confident we will be able to close out on a fresh signing in the next couple of weeks.” Sports Minister Harin Fernando told the media on Friday, 2nd August.
