Vishwas Puri
Former Sri Lankan cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya has been appointed as the full time coach of the Sri Lankan men’s team. He was the interim coach of the Sri Lankan team since July and will now take the post with a contract till March 2026.
Jayasuriya was appointed as the interim coach of the team on account of a poor performance in the T20I World Cup 2024, where they exited the tournament in the early stages and could not even make it to the Super-8 stage. Former coach Mahela Jayavardhane also left his post of assistant coach after the tournament, which made him more suitable for the post.
Jayasuriya was a part of the 1996 World Cup-winning team, where he caught the limelight in the tournament with his attacking approach in batting. He has also been a selector for the team in 2013. But in a short period of his interim coaching, Jayasuriya has taken his team to creating history more than twice. Under his coaching, Sri Lanka registered a bilateral ODI series win against India after 27 years and the first one in the 21st century. Alongside, despite losing the Test series against England at their home. Sri Lanka defeated England at the oval, which is their first test victory against England in England since 2014. And recently in the month of September, Sri Lanka clean-sweeped New Zealand, which improved their chances for the WTC finals as they are on No. 3 of the WTC table.
All these results under his coaching forced the selection committee to appoint Jayasuriya as a full-time coach of the team. His official coaching stint will begin from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2026. And his first assignment as the full-time coach of the team will be the ODI series against the West Indies starting from October in Dambulla.
The aim of the new permanent coach of the team will be to find more talents like Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, who are currently dominating Test cricket.
