Host of cricket personalities eye Lankan coaching job
A plethora of well-known cricket personalities have shown interest in taking over the Lankan National coach’s position which becomes vacant at the completion of the current Pakistan tour.
One of the hopefuls – Chris Adams who was the Lankan consultant Coach during Sri Lanka’s victorious series against England at practices with the Lankan cricketers during that tour.
The great interest in the top job, it seems, stems from Sri Lanka’s success at the T-20 World Cup and the clean sweep in England.
Among the names that have shown interest in the job are former Australian fast
Craig_McDermott
bowler Craig McDermott who is the current Assistant Coach of the Australian national team, former South African coach Ray Jennings, incidentally who is currently handling the South African Under 19 squad which won the last Under 19 World Cup, former South African and Australian national coach Mickey Arthur and Former South African all-rounder Lance Klusener
Another heavily recommended name is Paddy Upton who is a South African leadership coach and former cricketer. He has worked as the physical fitness trainer for the South Africa cricket team and the rugby team of Western Cape Province. He also has worked as the mental conditioning coach of Indian Cricket Team which became No.1 in World Test Rankings and the team which won ICC World Cup in 2011. He is the current Performance Director of the South Africa cricket team. He is also the Head Coach of the Rajasthan Royals Team in the Indian Premier League.
Ray Jennings
It is learnt that Englishman Chris Adams who was part of the history-making Lankan tour of England as consultant coach, has also shown interest in becoming a coach on a consultant basis.
After the sudden departure of Paul Farbrace who changed camps in the eleventh hour, Marvan Atapattu was given the task of handling the Lankan side to England as National Coach and on his request he was given the just concluded South African tour too. However after the South Africans beat the Lankans, winning a series for the first in two decades in Sri Lanka, Marvan’s tenure was extended by only for the Pakistan tour. Meanwhile the post was advertised along with the post of fielding coach, which was held by Marvan’s assistant Ruwan Kalpage.
The Sunday Times learns that former England batsman Mark Ramprakash, who is now the batting coach of the England team also showed some interest in the National Coach job, but did not send in his application.
SLC’s cricket coaching committee headed by Ranjith Fernando is due to meet next week and discuss the names and decide if they have to do more headhunting or not.
Lance Klusener
In another move, it is learned that SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa has managed to pull off a deal with spin bowling Coach Piyal Wijetunga.
Wijetunga who was about to put his weight behind the Bangladesh cause with former Lankan Shadow Coach Chandika Haturusinghe will stay back with the Lankan coaching department.
Wijetunga who was offered a salary of US$ 10,000 in Bangladesh was offered a pay hike from the Rs. 450,000 a month to Rs. 600,000. He is happy with the gesture of the Lankan cricket hierarchy.
Meanwhile, off spinner Sachithra Senanayake who was banned by the ICC, travelled to Perth Australia yesterday, to undergo some remedial sessions with Daryl Foster
Foster as a human movement lecturer at the University of Western Australia, regularly involves in tests to prove whether bowlers throw deliveries beyond ICC guidelines.
Mickey Arthur
He was involved in testing Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling action in 1995, 1999 and 2004. He was also involved in analysing Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s action in 2001.
Senanayake will work with Foster for 7-10 days before returning to the island. Foster’s report on his findings will follow later.
Thisara Perera who also went through some anxiety sessions before pulling out of the national squad is reported to be okay and is in full training.
With the World Cup around, there is a likelihood that both these cricketers will be drafted back into the national side for the England tour of Sri Lanka.
In the Junior scene, the Lankan authorities have shortlisted the names of Roger Wijesuriya, former Sri Lanka left arm spinner Gamini Perera, current Trinity College coach Sampath Perera and Dinesh Weerasinghe for the job of Under 19 coach.