SLC ropes in sports psychologist

Friday, 31 October 2014 02:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

ESPNcricinfo: Sri Lanka have enlisted the help of sports psychologist and former England offspinner Jeremy Snape for their upcoming home series against England. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) made the decision with a view to having a performance coach on board for ther 2015 World Cup campaign. The board is also understood to be in talks with former India fielding coach Trevor Penney about a full-time position with the Sri Lanka side. “We’ve confirmed that Jeremy Snape will be coming on an assignment basis, for the England tour,” SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said. “The decision on whether we will have a psychologist for the World Cup has not been made yet.” Sri Lanka’s record at recent World Cups had been a catalyst for the decision to sign a sports psychologist, with a pattern of failure at high-pressure matches having developed over the past seven years. Sri Lanka lost four major finals between 2007 and 2012, and though the team has since won the 2014 Word T20, the board is looking closely at enlisting a sports psychologist to buttress the 2015 World Cup effort. An offspinning-allrounder in his playing career, Snape played 10 ODIs and a T20I for England, in addition to 121 first-class matches. He has a masters degree in sports psychology, and has worked with England, South Africa, as well as teams in the IPL and Big Bash League. Penney, meanwhile, is understood to be in the final stages of negotiations for the vacant fielding coach position. He had been highly rated in Sri Lanka following his tenure as the national team’s assistant coach under Tom Moody - a stint which ended in 2007. Penney was India’s fielding coach from 2011 to 2014, and had also worked with Kolkata Knight Riders during that time. Sri Lanka loses warm up match after Rohit and Pandey centuries ESPNCricinfo: Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey and Karn Sharma made the most of their opportunities for India A while the Sri Lankans didn’t have much to gain from the warm-up one-dayer at the Brabourne Stadium. With Sri Lanka deciding to give all fifteen members of their squad a go, the match didn’t have any statistical relevance. Still Rohit’s innings showed that he has recovered from his injuries while Pandey’s and Karn’s efforts in the comprehensive 88-run victory will help push their case for national selection. Rohit was playing his first match after being sidelined for 10 weeks due to a finger injury on his right hand. Pandey was keen to justify his maiden call-up to the national team, after being selected for the Twenty20 against West Indies, which was cancelled following the withdrawal of the West Indians from the tour. Karn, on the other hand, was desperate for a strong performance after losing his place in the limited-overs squad. Sri Lankans tried out 11 bowlers and none of them could find the right line length.Perhaps the only highlight of the innings for the Sri Lankans was collecting four wickets in the last two overs, including three in the penultimate over bowled by Prasad. However, all the dismissals were due to batsmen trying to score quick runs rather than due to the bowlers’ efforts. Once Dhawal Kulkarni forced a nick off Kusal Perera’s bat in the first over of the chase, the visitors preferred to spend time at the wicket rather than going for the mammoth target of 383. However, Karn, the leggie, deprived the top-order batsmen of a big knock. After trapping Tillakaratne Dilshan in front of the wickets off his first ball, Karn added the scalps of Angelo Mathews, Mahela Jayawardene and Upul Tharanga, the only Sri Lankan to cross fifty. The ball of the day turned out to be Karn’s googly in the 32nd over which went between Jayawardene’s bat and pad and crashed into the stumps. Chief Scores: India A 382 for 6 (Rohit 142, Pandey 135, Chand 54) beat Sri Lankans 294 for 9 (Tharanga 76, Karn 4-47) by 88 runs