SLC to advertise for position of Under19 head coach

• Performances of national coaching staff to be assessed after T20 World Cup
• ExCo to take a call on bonus and incentives for women cricketers

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq 

It seems the ICC Cricket World Cup in any of its formats (50-over, T20I or Under19) is the benchmark to judge performances of the coaching staff and captains of every national cricket team and it also serves as one that players chose to step out of international cricket.

In recent times Sri Lanka cricket underwent major changes with captains in all three formats – One-Day International (ODI), Twenty20 International (T20I) and Tests following the aftermath of the 50-over World Cup in India in November last year where a change of national selectors saw Kusal Mendis (ODI), Wanindu Hasaranga (T20I) and Dhananjaya de Silva (Tests) being appointed leaders to the various formats.

The two-year contracts given to the support staff also came up for review at the end of this month. In that aspect the contracts of Jehan Mubarak who was the national Under19 coach and Naveed Nawaz, the national team’s batting and assistant coach were not renewed. In Mubarak’s case Sri Lanka finished a distance fifth out of six teams in the Super Six and failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2024 Under19 World Cup held in South Africa, whereas for Nawaz, the constant batting failures of the national team especially in the 50-over World Cup in India 2023 that saw Sri Lanka finish ninth out of ten teams with two wins out of nine matches in the league proved to be the final writing on the wall. 

The appointment of former Sri Lanka white ball cricketer and successful coach of Jaffna Kings in the Lanka Premier League, Thilina Kandamby to join the support staff as batting coach in January ahead of the home series against Zimbabwe gave clear indications that Nawaz was treading on thin ice.

The appointment of Kandamby along with another former Sri Lanka cricketer Upul Chandana as the national fielding coach in January has seen a marked change in the batting and fielding of the team in the series against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in all three formats.

These appointments took place after SLC appointed former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya as a full time cricket consultant for a one year period in December. Jayasuriya’s role is to ensure that SLC national programs achieve an optimum level of professionalism and that all players and coaching staff are monitored in order to deliver excellence.

Mubarak in the meanwhile has not been ditched but more or less been elevated from Under19 to be in charge of the Emerging and Development squads which was formerly under Ruwan Kalpage.

Kalpage, also a former Sri Lanka cricketer has been moved to the High Performance Centre (HPC) as director cricket to assist Jerome Jayaratne, the head of HPC. Kalpage will be overlooking all national cricket, while Tim McCaskill will be overlooking the international side.

“We are creating pathways for the coaches as well by selecting the right people, otherwise they will stagnate,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva.

“For the Under19 coach we are going to advertise for the position within the next week. For the moment we haven’t got anybody.”

Meanwhile, De Silva said that SLC has extended the contract of national team head coach Chris Silverwood till the end of July.

“We will assess his performance after the T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies. Kandamby’s appointment will be on a tour by tour basis for the moment. After the T20 World Cup we will assess the performances of all the coaches and then we will take a call on how we want to structure the national team’s support staff.”

De Silva stated that Sri Lanka women’s cricket was well under control with former Sri Lanka fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake at the helm. “The Under19 cricketers and the national cricketers are doing well. The same coaching staff members will continue.”

“We have 60 women players’ women contracted, 25 with national contracts, and 15 with ‘A’ team and 20 on Development contracts. Their contracts are renewable at the end of May. We have asked the national selectors to nominate the players to be contracted and they have done so. It will be taken up at the next Executive Committee meeting and we will be renewing it.”

“Based on their performance we would be considering giving them increments. Last year we increased the match fees by $ 250 so that if they win a match they get $ 1,000. Apart from that they are on a monthly pay basis of between Rs. 150,000 to 300,000 according to their categories.”

De Silva said that for their unique achievement of winning the T20I series 2-1 and drawing the ODI series 1-all in South Africa the players could be provided with bonuses as well as incentives for which the ExCo will take a call at their next meeting.