Curiouser and Curiouser
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Chaminda Vaas to the fore - as Sri Lanka Emerging team coach
Sri Lanka’s seemingly never-ending problems with coaches has taken a new strange twist. It wasn’t many days ago when Avishka Gunawardane-Sri Lanka’s very successful A team coach-was downgraded to ‘Emerging Status’.
Now comes the startling news that Gunawardene has fallen foul of the Emirate Cricket Board’s Anti Corruption Code. This has led to him being suspended from his coaching position.
Chaminda Vaas, who is the highest wicket taker among the pace bowlers, is currently the U-19 bowling coach. With all the goings on, Vaas has now been elevated to the position of the Emerging Team coach.
Whether Vaas will make a good fist of his new coaching role is up in the air. He certainly has the credentials for the job. We tend to look on batsmen favourably when selecting the head coach. The role is reversed here as Vaas was primarily a bowler.
What is disturbing is the frequency with which coaches are hired and fired and the damaging effect it would have on their charges.
Reverting to Gunawardene, he becomes the third Sri Lanka cricketer to be charged by the Emirate’s Cricket Board following in the footsteps of Dilhara Lokuhettige and Nuwan Zoysa. The strange goings on are purported have occurred during the T10 tournament held in the UAE in 2017.
Incidentally, the Sri Lankan team was captained by Dinesh Chandimal at this tournament held in the Deserts Sands. Ironically Chandimal is also out of favour at this moment but due to different reasons.