SL Women’s cricketers prepare for Cricket World Cup Qualifier

Sri Lanka Women’s cricketers at practice

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka (SL) Women’s cricketers are hard at practice at the P. Sara Oval preparing for the 2021 Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier which will be hosted by SL in June-July this year.

For the moment, Women’s cricket is being overlooked by two coaches on an interim basis – Lanka de Silva is overlooking the Women’s National Team and Mahesh Weerasinghe the Women’s Under-19 cricketers, until a permanent head coach is appointed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

“We are looking out for a permanent Head Coach, but we are not going ahead with the recruitment until the country’s situation returns to normal,” said SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.

The National Women’s Cricket Team has not had a permanent Head Coach since Harsha de Silva’s contract was not renewed by SLC at the end of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia in March 2020.

The Consultant in charge of Women’s Cricket – International and Domestic Operations and Development Manoja Kariyapperuma said SL was keen to play an international side before the World Cup Qualifiers and that they were currently in talks with the respective Cricket Boards.

“We have two options. We can have Pakistan and Bangladesh or have a triangular tournament or only Pakistan. We are in talks with the Cricket Boards of Bangladesh and India also and we are almost there. It is good if we can go across, because of the PCR testing that is done here which is going to cost us more. Hosting is costlier than touring and we are not financially sound. I am planning to have a bilateral series. We are hoping to go out of the country and play. The only thing is the two countries that are interested in playing us, are the worst hit by the pandemic than us, Bangladesh and India, but they are playing cricket,” said Kariyapperuma.

“We have retained the same squad that went to the World Cup in Australia because we didn’t play any matches after that. So we thought it’s not fair to change. But now we are in the process of organising another four-a-side provincial tournament in Dambulla in March to select a new squad,” he said.

“The national cricketers you have 20, Emerging 15 in the 35-members squad that is currently at practice. We need another 25 and that will be selected amongst the probable Under-19 and Under-23 who have done well. They will play in the super provincial tournament.”

“The Under-19 girls we have not called for practices yet, but the 35 in the National Squad who are practicing have been tested together and then two further tests have been done. Now we are doing random tests. The National cricketers practice in small groups of less than ten at a time,” Kariyapperuma said.