Rumesh Ratnayake Named Sri Lanka’s Interim Coach

Rumesh Ratnayake, the former fast bowler has been named as the interim coach of Sri Lanka team before the home Test series against New Zealand. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced the news on Wednesday. However, they didn’t say anything on the head coach Chandika Hathurusingha as he had been sacked.

Chandika Hathurusingha had been appointed as the head coach of SriLanka team in December 2017. However, he has been criticised for Sri Lanka’s poor performances which included recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup where Sri Lanka had a dismal show. They were knocked out in the group league stage.

“We’ve been watching the coach’s performance for over a year-and-a-half. Based on that we’ve taken this decision,” Shammi Silva, the President of SLC said to the reporters. “I was also in the board that recruited Hathurusingha, and we’ve made some mistakes. But if we are to do right by cricket in (the) future, we have to correct those mistakes.”

On the other hand, Hathurusingha had been sent a letter to explain and SLC will wait 14 days for the response. Although, he refused to say anything on the issues with the sacked coach, saying it was a “legal matter”.

However, Hathurusingha confirmed that he had already received a letter.

“As far as I’m concerned, my contract with SLC is still there,” Hathurusingha said to ESPNcricinfo. “The letter doesn’t say anything about termination of contract or anything like that.”

Sri Lanka, however, are all set to take on New Zealand in a two-Test series which will start from August 14 at Galle International Stadium, Galle.