Bipin Dani
Sri Lanka’s former opening batter Charith Senanayake has been appointed as the manager for the “A” team.
The 59-year-old Senanayake will manage the home team against the visiting Australian “A” team to play two one-day and two four-day games in Sri Lanka during a bumper all-format Aussie tour in June-July.
Managing the Sri Lankan team and players has not been the first time Senanayake would be doing so. He was the manager of the national team which beat Australia 3-0 in a Test series.
More importantly, he was instrumental in swapping captains at the 2012 T-20 World Cup, following which the ICC was forced to change the rules.
In 2012, Sri Lanka switched the captaincy in its last World T-20 group match against England to avoid Mahela Jayawardene being banned for repeated slow over rate after the win against West Indies, and faced one match suspension.
To ensure this, it was Senanayake, who asked Sangakkara to toss the coin (the scorecard mentioned Sanga was the official captain) but Jayawardene to lead the team on field.
Unlike now, the ICC rules then didn’t make any reference to switching captains before any international match.
Senanayake has also worked with current coach Avishka Gunawardene and toured Jamaica, Bangladesh previously.
