Hathurusingha to get all the freedom he wants as a coach: SLC Chief

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) president Thilanga Sumathipala expressed his happiness in recruiting Chandrika Hathurusingha. He has replaced NicPothas who is an interim coach of the Sri Lankan senior team. The SLC chief specified that Hathurusingha would be given all the freedom he wants in rebuilding the Sri Lankan team. He hailed Hathurusingha as a world class coach and said that he is capable of regaining a dominant position in international cricket.

Hathurusingha who previously coached the Bangladeshis resigned after a devastating performance by the team in South Africa. On the other hand, with Graham Ford stepping down as the Lankan head coach, Pothas was named as an interim. Hathurusingha was amongst the first of names discussed as a potential coach but he was contracted with the BCB till the 2019 World Cup.

Under his tenure, Bangladesh has done extraordinarily well. The victories at home against England and Australia in test matches, reaching the semis of the Champions Trophy and also the ODI series victories against India, Pakistan and South Africa all came under his guidance. Bangladesh also reached the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup in his tenure. Recently, they toured South Africa but couldn’t win a single game. Owing to the disastrous performance, Huthurusingha resigned as the coach.

Happy to recruit world-class Haathurusingha – SLC President

SLC chief was happy to get the former Sri Lankan cricketer on board. “There’s no point in hiring one of the best coaches in the world and then failing to give him the freedom to do his job. I’m not a coach and no one on the board knows more about the job of a coach than Mr.Hathurusingha. We have to give him freedom. But we also trust that he will do his job well and have an expectation that he will answer the questions that we have for him from time to time,” he said on Wednesday.

“He is always one person who believes in technology and uses it in the best interest of the team. So when we had shortlisted people who are available right now, even though Hathurusingha wasn’t available at that time, COO, myself spoke to him and spoke with him about the possibility of working,” he added.

~ Written by Akhil Sampatirao