COLOMBO, July 15: Former pace bowler Rumesh Ratnayake has been appointed Sri Lanka’s coach for the tour of Australia beginning next month, the head of the country’s newly-appointed interim cricket committee said on Friday.

“We have appointed Rumesh Ratnayake only for the Australian tour because there is hardly any time to look for another coach,” Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) interim committee chairman Upali Dharmadasa said.

The 47-year-old former new-ball bowler, who played 23 Test and 70 One-day Internationals from 1982-1993, has been working as a development officer with the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

“We had to get permission from the ACC to have Rumesh released for the series,” Dharmadasa said.

Sri Lanka have been without a full-time coach since Trevor Bayliss quit after the World Cup in early April and his deputy Stuart Law was put in temporary charge.

Law was named the new Bangladesh coach last month, leading to another round of head-hunting ahead of the team’s tour of Australia to play two Twenty20 Internationals, five ODIs and three Test matches.

Ratnayake had declined an assistant coach’s job in 2007.

Dharmadasa said SLC would appoint a full-time coach within the next three months.

“We will call for fresh applicants for the post by advertising on the ICC and Sri Lanka Cricket websites and also in the national newspapers,” Dharmadasa stated.—Reuters