After Charith Senanayake departure from the national team, now Sri Lanka head coach Chandika Hathurasingha has set his sight on fielding coach Manoj Abeywikrama. After Sri Lanka suffered series loss against England after Kandy test debacle on Sunday, Hathurusingha put all the blame on the fielding standard of the team.
“I completely agree that fielding has been an issue for us for a long time in every format,” Hathurusingha said after the series defeat to England. “I think it’s a big-picture thing. The guys who are not fielding well up to the mark, are the same kinds of players who are coming through the system. They are not athletic enough or skilled enough to do that kind of fielding. We need to address that.”
“We need to look at fielding as a No. 1 thing,” Hathurusingha said. “Most of the time we look at their No. 1 skill – either bowling or batting – and then you ignore the fielding sometimes. But we need to look at that very seriously when we select. We need to look at their ability to contribute in the field. The important thing in fielding is attitude.”
In Manoj Abeywikrama case, Cricket Age had published a month ago that Hathurusingha wants his another loyalist Ruwan Kalpage in the national team setup at any cost. He was so much desperate to fit Ruwan in his coaching staff that he told SLC to hire him at any position : fielding coach or even as an assistant bowling coach.
It is noteworthy that as soon as Hathurusingha arrived Sri Lanka as a Messiah, he has regularly been sidelining domestic coaches and administrators. Few months ago, he unsuccessfully plotted against Sri Lanka A team coach Avishka Gunawardana, as he had wanted to bring his loyalist Thilina Kandamby.
During the period, Sri Lanka has embarrassingly been defeated in the ODI series by South Africa and England at home and were thrashed by minnows like Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. Now, Sri Lanka has lost a test match at Galle, which was considered their fortress! Despite this poor showing, SLC has no courage to ask Hathurusingha, even though he is getting paid staggering 6 million rupees and has given all the decision making powers.
