Sanath Jayasuriya appointed Sri Lanka cricket team’s new head coach

Former Sri Lanka captain and former selector Sanath Jayasuriya has been appointed as the new head coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team.

Jayasuriya, an explosive batter and a left-arm spinner, has replaced Chris Silverhood as the head coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team. Silverwood quit after Sri Lanka’s group stage exit at the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Jayasuriya has played 586 matches for Sri Lanka, across formats, and has scored 42 centuries. He has also taken 440 wickets with his slow left-arm spin. He retired from international cricket in 2011. He also served as the national selector for the Sri Lanka cricket team.

The 55-year-old informed news agencies that he had received a call from the Sri Lankan cricket board (SLC) requesting him to take charge of the team.

Jayasuriya will take over as the head coach at the end of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) that is underway. The LPL final is slated to be held on July 21.

The southpaw’s first assignment as Sri Lanka’s head coach will be the white-ball series against India and will later tour England for a multi-format series.

Sri Lanka had a horrid ICC T20 World Cup 2024 winning just one match, against the Netherlands in their group. They lost to Bangladesh and South Africa, the eventual finalists, and were ousted in the group stage.

The T20 World Cup was Silverwood’s last national assignment. He took over as the head coach in April 2022 and led Sri Lanka to an Asia Cup triumph soon after. He also led Sri Lanka to the Asia Cup final in 2023.

However, they had limited success on the world stage after the team did not make it to the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup in 2022, ODI World Cup in 2023 and the T20 World Cup in 2024.

Silverwood resigned from his post, although citing personal reasons behind the decision. Soon after Silverwood’s resignation, former captain Mahela Jayawardena also stepped down from his role as a consultant coach.