At a press conference held earlier today to announce the appointment of Nick Porthas as the national fielding coach, Aravinda De Silva, Chairman of the Cricket Committee at Sri Lanka Cricket, informed the media that former national fast bowler Chaminda Vaas is set to join SLC as a specialist bowling consultant by the end of the month.
De Silva has made it a point to try and involve as many past cricketers in the game as possible and Vaas is the latest addition to the coaching set up.
“I had a chat with him (Vaas) and he’s very keen to take it seriously. We feel that he will really be good to develop some of our young cricketers, again from the grass-root levels”
Part of Vaas’ role would be to work with cricketers at the Under 19, Development Squad and A team levels and to also help in the talent identification areas. De Silva identified his role as more of a ‘floating’ position where he will look to develop the club and provincial areas as well.
Vaas had functioned as the national bowling coach from early 2013 – April 2015.
Photo Album – Press Conference to announce new Fielding Coach
Nic Porthas joins as new fielding coach
Former Hampshire Captain Nic Porthas, newly appointed fielding coach for the national team, gave his thoughts on his role at SLC
“I’m super excited at the prospect of joining Sri Lanka Cricket. I’ve known Graham Ford for a long time… I’ve known Simon Willis from the UK as well, so it’s brilliant to get alongside and work with them.”
“Fielding, I’ve always seen it as the way that you show your teammates how much you care about them, so it will be the mantra that we use over the period that I’m with Sri Lanka Cricket.”
According to De Silva, former Zimbabwe batsman Grant Flower was the other leading contender for the role of national fielding coach, however due to his impending commitments, SLC had chosen to go with Porthas.
