Dilruwan Jayarathne
According to the senior official of SLC, the top officials of SLC Exco, Cricket Advisory Committee, the Selection Committee had a successful discussion two days ago to appoint the coaches for the sides. The senior official of SLC said former National players Naveed Nawaz, Avishka Gunawardena, Jehan Mubarak, Ruwan Kalpage Thilina Kandambi, and Sampath Parera are already on the list to be appointed as coaches.
After the National head coach, Mickey Arthur quit last December none of the permanent head coaches was appointed and Rumesh Ratnayake was appointed as Interim head coach for the National team matches against Zimbabwe, Australia, and India. Several foreign coaches were interviewed but still not finalised for the head coach post while SLC now plans to create a new post “Assistant head coach” and already decided to give this post to former National player Naveed Nawaz who is currently serving as Bangladesh Under-19 coach. Nawaz will be appointed as Assistant head coach for the Bangladesh Test series which will commence next May and SLC also have a plan to appoint a foreign coach for the Head Coach position.
Meanwhile, present National under 19 coach Avishka Gunawardena is tipped to be named as Sri Lanka ‘A’ coach while his assistant coach will be named Thilina Kandamby who had good records as a coach at domestic tournaments such as National Super League Limited-over champion Jaffna team coach and also two LPL tournaments champion Jaffna team coach. In addition, Ruwan Kalpage is tipped to be named emerging coach while National Under 19 head coach might be given to Jehan Mubarak while Sampath Perera, who was the former SSC, Trinity, and later Malaysian coach is going to be named as National Under 19 team assistant coach. Mubarak already works as Head coach of the Galle team for the ongoing National Super League tournament. Meanwhile, Avishka Gunawardena once again joined the National Team for the Indian test series as an extra batting coach
In addition, SLC also has made arrangements for the emerging team and Sri Lanka ’A’ team International matches to focus to make strong second-string players They already have an idea to organize an Emerging team tour to England and also a tour of Pakistan.
By : Dhammika Rathnaweera