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Tuesday, 14 July 2015 00:37 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
London Evening Standard: After scoring nearly 4,000 international runs against England, Mahela Jayawardene might soon be sharing the secrets of his success with some of the men he drove to distraction.
Standard Sport understands that the former Sri Lanka captain is in line to be hired by England on a consultancy basis at the end of the summer.
Coach Trevor Bayliss and his assistant Paul Farbrace worked extensively with Jayawardene during their time with Sri Lanka and believe his insight would be invaluable to England.
The plan, it is believed, would be for Jayawardene to come on board initially as on a series-by-series basis, rather than as a full-time member of the back-room team.
It is thought that batting coach Mark Ramprakash’s position would be unaffected.
The 38-year-old would be used for the series against Pakistan in the autumn in the United Arab Emirates. His understanding of Asian conditions would be sought, as would his expertise at playing spin bowling.
Furthermore, both Sri Lanka and Pakistan tour England next summer, which would make Jayawardene’s knowledge similarly useful.
Jayawardene retired from international cricket after the World Cup earlier this year and has since operated as a freelance Twenty20 player.
The batsman had a spell with Sussex in the NatWest T20 Blast before linking up with Jamaica Tallawahs, a Caribbean Premier League franchise. England have worked with coaches before who have not been full-time members of staff — Mushtaq Ahmed, for example, helped the spin bowlers for some years on that basis.
Jayawardene was one of the finest batsmen of his era, especially in Asia.
He scored 34 hundreds from 149 Tests, finishing with an average a shade below 50, and played 448 one-day internationals. After suffering heartbreak in limited-overs finals, Jayawardene and Sri Lanka finally broke their duck in 2014, when they won the World Twenty20.
