The National Team Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha, is getting a free hand by the incompetent Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC). After the conclusion of the Nidahas trophy in March, SLC had gifted one month ‘paid holiday’ to Hathurusingha, Cricket Age reliably learns.
Hathurusingha, who took over as Sri Lanka head coach in the last week of December 2017, is being paid a whopping salary of 6 Million Rupees per month. However, he couldn’t bring much difference, as Sri Lanka is still struggling to find a settled squad, especially in shorter formats. Even after being host, Sri Lanka couldn’t reach in the final of the Nidahas trophy and has already lost the ongoing ODI series against South Africa 3-0.
“The main issue is that Hathurusingha is trusting only on his people’s. And those people’s are from Australia. The board has realized that he is not trusting on local coaches. In addition, he is spending much lesser time with the team. Now, the board is considering this aspect rather seriously” a top SLC Official told Cricket Age.
Not only the paid holiday after Nidahas trophy, Hathurusingha prefers to return to Australia after the conclusion of every home series or away tour.
“He always goes home soon after a tour and only comes back just before the next tour begins” a former Sri Lanka player told.
After Sri Lanka’s controversial tour of West Indies also, Hathurusingha didn’t return to Sri Lanka, instead went to Australia straightway. After the conclusion of the West Indies tour, team returned immediately, but Hathurasingha opted to stay in West Indies, that cost SLC extra half a million rupees.
“There is another pattern of Hathurusingha. He never comes and talks to media. Even after the Ball tampering incident, Dinesh Chandimal and Asanka Gurusinha faced the barrage of questions from the media in a press conference at SLC, but Gurusinha skipped and till date have not spoken about the unfortunate incident” he added further.
In Sri Lanka Cricket history, Hathurusingha is the highest paid national team Coach. As it is not enough, SLC is gifting him ‘paid holidays’ as well!
