Chandika Hathurusingha, the high profile Coach of Sri Lanka Cricket team, has returned to Australia right after the conclusion of the South Africa Series citing personal reasons, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Hathurusingha was not part of Sri Lanka’s official Coaching setup during the most part of the South Africa series due to his suspension from the ICC over his involvement in ‘breaching the spirit of the game’ during West Indies tour. He returned to coach Sri Lanka from fourth ODI of the series.
“Hathurusingha is not in Sri Lanka and Will join the team on August 29 to start the preparation for Asia Cup that will be played in September” a top SLC Official told Cricket Age.
Apart from Hathurasinghe, Sri Lanka’s batting Coach Thilan Samaraweera and Bowling Coach Rumesh Rathnayake have also returned to Australia after the South Africa Series. In addition, Team’s analyst Panish Shetty and trainer Nick Lee have also returned to their home countries India and England respectively.
Interestingly, right now Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) is organizing a local t20 tournament before selecting final squad for the Asia Cup. A total of 84 players are competing with each other to impress the team management for national selection. However, no one is from the national team coaching setup is in Sri Lanka to look after player’s performance in the tournament, even though Hathurasingha has been given the extra power by SLC as one of the selector of the team.
Cricket Age has the access of Hathurusingha’s contract and it says he has been allotted 30 holidays in a year. According to SLC sources, he has already taken 20 holidays out of it.
Right after his appointment, Hathurusingha has made it a habit to join the Sri Lanka team only few days before a series and leave for Australia right after the conclusion of the assignment! Surprisingly, his close associates Samaraweera and Rathanayake have also been following the same pattern.
In December 2017, then SLC President Thilanga Sumathipala brought Hathurusingha to Sri Lanka. His sole motive behind Hathurusingha’s appointment was to divert the attention of his critics towards Hathurasingha. However, Sumathipala Led administration couldn’t continue to rob SLC and were knocked out by the Judiciary. Since then, SLC has been running by Sports Minister Faizer Mustapha and his secretary Kamal Padmasiri. As they don’t know a word about cricket and SLC CEO Ashley De Silva is totally incompetent, now Hathurusingha and Co. have the final say in Cricket afairs.
