Former South Africa, Australia and Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur arrived in Colombo last night (December 3) to take over the position of Sri Lanka Cricket Head Coach. The Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) has inked a 2 year contract with Arthur which will begin after Pakistan tour. He will travel to Pakistan as a Consultant Coach.
The latest developments have come ahead of Sri Lanka’s bilateral Test series with Pakistan – a side which parted ways with the South African after a dreadful ICC Wold Cup 2019 in England and Wales last summer. Arthur coached the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led side that upstaged Team India and won the 2017 Champions Trophy in England. Under Arthur, Pakistan also remained a force to reckon with in the T20I mix as they dominated the shortest format of the game when he was at the coaching helm.
Sri Lanka were eying a replacement for Chandika Hathurusingha ever since the Lankan Lions wrapped up a forget World Cup in the United Kingdom last summer. Arthur, who was earlier succeded by Mishbah-ul-Haq in Pakistan was a clear favourite to bag the coaching job. Arthur also has a bright resume to boast his claim as he has managed sides like Pakistan, South Africa and Australia in the past.
Spearheading the Sri Lankan coaching staff led by Arthur is former Zimbabwean cricketer and coach – Flower, who is named the batting coach while Saker is the bowling coach and McDermott will be taking care of the fielding department.
Saker has worked as bowling coach for both England and Australia over the last ten years, before he took up the role of bowling coach with USA earlier this year – one he has now left.
McDermott was the first of the four new appointments to have come on board, with SLC securing his contract earlier this month on the recommendation of Cricket Australia. He had earlier served as the South Australia Cricket Association’s high-performance coach
However, Flower is likely to focus only on limited-overs side and won’t travel to Pakistan with the team. Interestingly, Chandika Hathurusingha still remains under the contract of SLC and it needs to be seen how things unfold in the next few days.
