Sri Lanka has appointed former captain Mahela Jayawardene as a consultant coach for its national cricket teams of different levels after his impactful role during the first stage of the recently-concluded T20 World Cup, the cricket board said on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said Jayawardene’s one-year contract will begin on Jan 1 and he will work with players and coaches for both the senior team and youth teams at the national high perform-ance center.
“We are extremely happy that Mahela is joining the national team for an extended role, especially given the context that Sri Lanka has a heavy interna-tional calendar during the year 2022,” the SLC quoted its chief executive, Ashley De Silva, as say-ing.
“Mahela’s contributions during the first round of the ICC T20 World Cup became invaluable for the overall performances of our team in the con-cluded event,” de Silva said.
Sri Lanka’s low ranking meant the team had to play a qualifying round just to reach the T20 World Cup that concluded last month in the UAE, despite having won the tournament in 2014.
Sri Lanka played against Namibia, Ireland and Netherlands in qualifying and won comfortably and Jayawardene, who worked as a consultant during that stage, was credited with boosting the team’s low confidence levels.—AFP
