Internet Desk: The Sri Lankan Cricket Board (SLC) today announced that Chandika Hathurusinghe will be appointed as the Head Coach of the Sri Lanka National Team, and will assume duties from the 20th December 2017. Hathurusingha resigned from his post of Bangladesh Cricket team coach last month and there were that he may join Sri Lanka team as their head coach as the World Cup is just two years from now. Nic Pothas is currently working as an interim coach of the Lankan cricket team and it is still unclear would be his fate after Hathurusingha’s arrival.
“Sri Lanka Cricket today (8) announced that subsequent to successful discussions, and upon the unanimous approval of the Executive Committee on 6th December 2017, Chandika Hathurusinghe will be appointed as the Head Coach of the Sri Lanka National Team, and will assume duties from the 20th December 2017,” the Sri Lankan Cricket Board said in a statement.
Hathurusingh was a former NSW Blues assistant coach and a former Sri Lankan cricketer too. Under his coaching, Bangladesh reached the quarter-final of the World Cup in 2015 and won one-day international series against Pakistan, India and South Africa in the same year.
Hathurusingha, however, came under criticism during Bangladesh’s recent tour of South Africa, where the team failed to register a single win.
The Sri Lankan cricket team is currently touring India where they lost the three-match Test series 1-0 against the World No.1 Test side. Now they will play three ODIs and three T20Is which is set to begin from December 10 at Dharamsala. Hathurusingha will officially start his job from the first T20I at Cuttack which will be played on December 20.
Hathurusingha played 26 Tests and 35 ODIs for Sri Lanka before becoming the country’s assistant coach under Trevor Bayliss.