Unprofessionalism comes to haunt SLC

• Hiring and firing policy of foreign coaches leaves SLC empty-handed

Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The fact that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) administrators lack professionalism has been quite clear for an extended period of time.

The Sports Minister appointed a Technical and Advisory Committee comprising several past player’s which was perceived to be an oversight committee to bridge the shortcomings in administrative functions. However, this too appears to have done nothing to restore the credibility of the institution.

It is reported that this absence of professionalism in hiring foreign coaches to take charge of the national cricket team leaves them in limbo without a successor to Mickey Arthur, the last to coach Sri Lanka.

SLC has earned a reputation for hiring and firing foreign coaches and they find themselves in a situation where coaches are reluctant to come, even after they are approached by SLC.

Two coaches whom SLC had in mind and had approached to fill Arthur’s post according to reports were Graham Ford and Paul Farbrace – both of whom had served as head coaches in the past but have turned down the offer to return for another term. The reasons for them doing so are clear as daylight.

Farbrace who was assistant coach to Trevor Bayliss quit his position at the end of his contract in August 2009 after SLC appointed Chandika Hathurusingha (then Sri Lanka ‘A’ team coach) as shadow assistant coach to Bayliss. 

Farbrace played an important role with Bayliss in making Sri Lanka a winning unit in world cricket. Farbrace returned in 2014 as head coach but a little over three years into his two-year contract with SLC he quit to become England’s assistant coach. Sri Lanka lost only one out of 18 matches under his watch winning the T20 World Cup and Asia Cup in that time.

Ford also had to undergo similar issues as head coach. In January 2012 he was appointed head coach replacing Geoff Marsh but he declined to extend his two-year term beyond January 2014 and stepped down to accept the post of head coach of Surrey. Ford was persuaded to return for a second stint by Kumar Sangakkara who praised his coaching when he played for Surrey and the influence he had on Sri Lanka cricket. 

In January 2016 Ford was once again appointed coach till the 2019 World Cup. But 15 months into his contract in 2017 Ford stepped down after strained relations with SLC in what he felt were unacceptable intrusions into team matters by SLC. One of his grievances was the expanding powers of Asanka Gurusinha who was appointed cricket manager which Ford was understood to have felt infringed upon his freedom as a coach making him feel less than fully in control of the team.

Dav Whatmore was perhaps the first foreign coach to feel the brunt of SLC’s unprofessionalism. He had guided Sri Lanka to win the World Cup in 1996, but a change of administration saw Whatmore being treated poorly when he was trying to build a team to defend the World Cup in three years’ time. He left dejected and in dismay not fulfilling his contract and joined Lancashire where he watched Sri Lanka perform poorly in the 1999 World Cup in England exiting in the first round. 

The appointment of the first interim committee for SLC saw Whatmore being recalled as coach for a second stint in 1999. Sri Lanka enjoyed a good run under his guidance but after Sri Lanka bowed out of the 2003 World Cup semi-finals, SLC sacked Whatmore saying that he had been with the team for a long time and that there should be fresh thinking.

Geoff Marsh, the former Australian cricketer and coach, suffered the unkindest cut of all the coaches from SLC. He was appointed coach in September 2011 on a two-year contract but his tenure lasted barely four months before he was sacked after guiding Sri Lanka to their first Test win in South Africa. 

Marsh joined in July when an interim committee was running cricket but by January when there was an elected cricket board in place he was fired without any reason. Marsh sued SLC of wrongful termination of his contract. Both parties reached an undisclosed financial settlement.

Even Chandika Hathurusingha’s appointment was handled rather unprofessionally. Hathurusingha came with a reputation and the SLC administration basically gave him all what he asked for including a seat on the selection committee which is in violation of the Sports Law. That is where everything went wrong.

Arthur could have easily been retained by SLC had there been some foresight. When Arthur was approached by Derbyshire he wanted to know where he stood with SLC because his two-year contract was coming up for renewal. But SLC’s inability to give him a straight answer resulted in Arthur leaving.

Even the approach adopted by SLC and the Technical and Advisory Committee (Tech committee) to find a successor to Arthur leaves much to be desired. How can you pick an assistant coach without first choosing a head coach and getting his views on what sort of support staff he requires?

There is also the question of Roshan Mahanama’s exit from the Tech committee. Was it due to him not being offered the head coach’s position? Muttiah Muralitharan, a member of the Tech committee, went on record at a television program that Mahanama was the best man for the job.

The unprofessional administration that has been allowed to function term after term is finally taking its toll on the management of the game itself where Sri Lanka cannot even get a coach with credentials to come and take charge of the team. It is also costing us in the rankings.

The irony of all this bungling is SLC being forced to appoint an interim head coach from the pool of the SLC High Performance Centre for the challenging Australian series scheduled for February and also the Indian series which follows.