COLOMBO: Sanath Jayasuriya was appointed Sri Lanka cricket head coach on Monday, replacing Chris Silverwood who quit following the country’s early exit from the T20 World Cup.

Jayasuriya, 55, had been in interim charge since June and on Monday was appointed full-time coach until March 2026 after recent successes, which included a Test match win in England and a home 2-0 Test series sweep against New Zealand.

Sri Lanka also won a One-day International series against India for the first time in 27 years under Jayasuriya.

The former Sri Lanka captain said his appointment was a dream come true.

“It is a challenging job, I know that... but I want to take the challenge and move forward with the team,” he told reporters in Colombo.

“There are no words for me to express my happiness”.

His immediate challenge is to prepare his players for three ODIs and three T20 Internationals against the visiting West Indies starting next week.

“The boys will need a lot of trust with the coach and confidence with the coach,” Jayasuriya said. “Anytime they can approach me, and discuss anything with me.”

He said he was at an advantage over foreign coaches because he could talk to players in their native language.

He is regarded as one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time and was pivotal in Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup victory.

Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said they decided to go with Jayasuriya despite shortlisting several foreign coaches.

De Silva said the remuneration package offered to Sanath was comparable to what would have been paid to a foreign coach, but declined to give details.

Jayasuriya represented Sri Lanka 586 times across the three formats of the game, hitting 42 centuries and taking 440 wickets. He played his last international in 2011.

The former national selector has also had a brush with the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit, and was banned from all forms of cricket for two years in 2018.

Jayasuriya was charged after failing to hand over his mobile phones, and was accused of obstructing or delaying any investigation into corruption in the game.

He is also an ex-lawmaker and a former deputy minister of the postal service.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024