Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has shortlisted three candidates for the vacant post of Women’s Team Coach. Amongst them, Harsha De Silva has emerged as the front runner to take over the job, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Last month, SLC advertised for the post after Hemantha Devapriya resigned due to team’s below par performance in recently concluded Asia Cup.
Now, After interviewing few candidates, SLC has shortlisted Harsha De Silva, Saman Jayantha and Ruwin Peiris for the job.
Saman Jayantha, an aggressive opener of his time, played 17 ODIs for Sri Lanka. A right-handed batsman and handy off-spinner, he played all his international matches in 2004, but could not perform consistently.
Harsha and Ruwin Perera couldn’t play for Sri Lanka, but were consistent performers at domestic level.
However, Harsha De Silva seems to be most likely to take over, as both SLC CEO Ashley De Silva and National Team’s Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha are backing him.
“Harsha De Silva is a frequent visitor of Australia for short term coaching assignments and considered very close to Ashley De Silva and Hathurusingha” A SLC source told Cricket Age.
Moreover, he was also the Coach of Sri Lanka shorter formats captain Angelo Mathews, Allrounder Thisara Perera and Test Opener Dimuth Karunaratne during their School day’s at St. Joseph College.
According to sources, the appointment of Women’s Coach is heading in the same direction as Hashan Tillakaratne’s appointment. Few months ago, SLC advertised for U19 Coach for just showoff, as former President Thilanga Sumathipala led administration unethically appointed Hashan, even though neither he applied nor came for the interview.
It has learnt that Lot of domestic coaches, who are more qualified than Harsha De Silva, applied for the post. However, SLC invited to very few for the interviews and anonymously shortlisted three candidates.
