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<\/p>\nBy Champika Fernando<\/p>\n
cricket<\/p>\n
View(s): <\/p>\n
In a significant restructuring of the country\u2019s cricket development setup, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has carried out a sweeping overhaul of its coaching infrastructure at the High Performance Centre (HPC), with a massive reshuffling across roles.<\/p>\n
The recommendations, which came not from the HPC\u2019s own leadership but directly from the Executive Committee, have seen the same familiar faces being moved around the board, in the hope that these changes will contribute effectively to player development.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jerome Jayarartne<\/p>\n
SLC is under significant public pressure following yet another disastrous campaign at the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup and the officials believe revamping and restructuring its coaching apparatus could herald a new chapter.<\/p>\n
Just days after Sanath Jayasuriya resigned as Head Coach, SLC appointed the former South African cricketer Gary Kirsten to take charge of the national team on a two-year contract, starting mid-April. With Kirsten expected to bring in his own specialists, particularly in spin bowling, fast bowling, and fielding, many of the coaches who worked with the national team over the past two years have found themselves reassigned to other positions within the HPC structure.<\/p>\n
Among those shifted are two foreign coaches, Julian Wood and Rene Ferdinands, who previously served as national batting coach and national spin bowling coach, respectively. Wood, brought on board last October as a power-hitting specialist on a one-year contract, will now serve as HPC Power Hitting Coach, covering all HPC squads including the women\u2019s setup. Ferdinands, a biomechanics expert appointed in late September on a two-year deal, transitions to the role of HPC Spin Bowling Coach across all HPC squads, looking into the science aspect of bowling. Both men remain within the system and are expected work with all squads.<\/p>\n
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The most significant casualties of this reshuffle, however, are Jehan Mubarak and Thilina Kandamby. Mubarak, who had been serving as National Analyst, and Kandamby, the National Batting Coach, have both been reassigned to the coaching structure of the proposed National Super League, Major Clubs and Division I schools. Joining them there is Ravindra Pushpakumara, who had been working as the Fast Bowling Academy Coach. For figures of their stature and experience, being moved into a domestic league structure represents a considerable step-down. Mubarak, who previously worked as Sri Lanka U-19 coach, has informed the HPC that he doesn\u2019t want to continue as an analyst. Batting has been a major concern of the Sri Lankan players, a reason may have prompted the demotion of Kandamby.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most controversial decision in the entire reshuffle is the handling of the Sri Lanka \u2018A\u2019 team. Avishka Gunawardena, a highly regarded local coach, has been moved from his role as \u2018A\u2019 Team Head Coach to take charge of the Sri Lanka Under-19 side. His replacement at the helm of the \u2018A\u2019 team is Ashan Priyanjan, a 36-year-old Colombo Cricket Club cricketer, who only retired from first-class cricket last year. The appointment of someone so fresh from playing, with limited coaching experience, to a role of that significance raises questions about the thinking behind the selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need here is to produce cricketers and Priyanjan, even though he is relatively young has produced cricketers. Avishka has been there for a while and we thought to get some fresh thinking to this important position,\u201d explained Jerome Jayarartne, Director of Cricket.<\/p>\n
The removal of Gunawardena from the \u2018A\u2019 team comes as a particularly sharp blow. Under his watch, Sri Lanka \u2018A\u2019 had performed consistently. Gunawardena has long been regarded as a coach who prioritises discipline, mental toughness, and modern playing techniques and his demotion has raised eyebrows across the cricketing community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the last five years, many of the \u2018A\u2019 team players have failed to graduate to the national team. They have won matches but what we need is to create a good feeder to the national level,\u201d Jayaratne explained.<\/p>\n
Priyanjan takes over a well-resourced \u2018A\u2019 team setup. His support staff will include Sachith Pathirana as Spin Bowling Coach, Manoj Abeywickrema and Upul Chandana as Fielding Coaches, former women\u2019s team Head Coach Rumesh Rathnayake as Fast Bowling Coach, and Chamara Silva, who was previously in charge of the U-19 team, as \u2018A\u2019 Team and National Team Batting Coach. Anusha Samaranayake, formerly the HPC fast bowling coach for all squads, has also been brought in as National and \u2018A\u2019 Team Fast Bowling Coach. Priyanjan and his team will closely work with the Kirsten and his support staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have a national pool of around 40 players and while the head coach will work with the top 20 players, Priyanjan and his support staff will work with the rest of 20 players, preparing them for national duty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gunawardena\u2019s coaching team include, Omesh Wijesiriwardena (Fast Bowling Coach) and Dilruwan Perera (Spin). Jayaratne said he expects to appoint a fulltime fielding coach soon while he will utilise coaches from the HPC to do the fielding in the interim.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the structure, Darshana Gamage, who served as the National Team\u2019s Fast Bowling Coach through to the recent World Cup, has been reassigned as Emerging Fast Bowling Coach. Piyal Wijetunga, the former National Spin Bowling Coach, moves into the role of Emerging Spin Bowling Coach. Dhammika Sudarshana and Saman Jayantha also join the Emerging team as Batting Coaches.<\/p>\n
At the women\u2019s national level, Chamila Gamage and Sajeewa Weerakoon, formerly with the \u2018A\u2019 team, have been placed in-charge of fast bowling and spin bowling, to work with Jamie Siddons, who was appointed as Women\u2019s Team Head Coach recently. Duminda Perera will continue to work as Batting Coach while Carmen Mapatuna will be the Fielding Coach.<\/p>\n
On paper, this looks like a thorough restructure. In practice, it may be little more than a reshuffling of the deck, with familiar names in unfamiliar chairs and some getting a row deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese coaches are contracted until December this year and then we will access their performances in respective roles to see whether they are worth retaining. They have been given KPIs and if they are not, we will take a call,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The National High Performance Centre is headed by Jayaratne with Sanath Jayasuriya joining them as Consultant. Ruwan Kalpage is the High Performance Manager looking into domestic cricket including schools.<\/p>\n
Teams National Team \u00a0Head Coach: Gary Kirsten <\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rest of the support staff to be appointed<\/p>\n
National Team\/\u2019A\u2019 Team<\/p>\n
Ashan Priyanjan: \u2018A\u2019 Team Head Coach\/Batting Coach \u00a0Chamara Silva: Batting Coach Anusha Samaranayake: Fast Bowling Coach Rumesh Ratnayake: Fast Bowling Coach Sachith Pathirana: Spin Bowling Coach Manoj Abeywickrama: Fielding Coach Upul Chandana: Fielding Coach <\/p>\n
Emerging Team<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Head Coach to be appointed on
assignment basis<\/p>\n
Saman Jayantha: Batting Coach Dammika Sudarshana: Batting Coach Darshana Gamage: Fast Bowling Coach Piyal Wijetunga: Spin Bowling Coach \u00a0Fielding aspect is looked in by the fielding coaches from the HPC Pool <\/p>\n
U-19 Team<\/p>\n
Avishka Fernando: Head Coach\/Batting Coach Omesh Wijesiriwardena: Fast Bowling Coach Dilruwn Perera: Spin Bowling Coach \u00a0Fielding aspect is looked in by the fielding coaches from the HPC Pool Julian Wood: HPC Power Hitting Coach Rene Ferdinands: HPC Spin Bowling Coach <\/p>\n
NSL\/Major Clubs\/Division I Schools<\/p>\n
Thilina Kandamby: NSL Coaching Structure Jehan Mubarak: NSL Coaching Structure Ravindra Pushpakumara: NSL Coaching Structure <\/p>\n
Women\u2019s National Team<\/p>\n
\u00a0Head Coach: Jamie Siddons \u00a0Analysing\/Consultant: Sumithra Warnakulasuriya Dumida Perera: Batting Coach Chamila Gamage: Fast Bowling Coach Sajeewa Weerakoon: Spin Bowling Coach Kaman Mapatuna: Fielding Coach <\/p>\n
Women\u2019s \u2018A\u2019 Team<\/p>\n
Sampath Perera: Head Coach\/Batting Coach Gayan Wijekoon: Fast Bowling Coach Vimukthi Deshapriya: Fielding Coach Sajeewa Weerakoon: Spin Coach <\/p>\n
Women\u2019s U-19 Team<\/p>\n
Mahesh Weerasinghe: Head coach Ruvin Peiris: Batting Coach Anton Costa: Fielding Coach Sajeewa Weerakoon: Spin Coach Chamila Gamage: Fast Bowling Coach \t\t \t\t \t\t \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Champika Fernando cricket View(s): In a significant restructuring of the country\u2019s cricket development setup, Sri Lanka Cricket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-490381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}