Roshan Mahanama

Former Sri Lanka cricketer and member of the Technical and Advisory Committee to Sri Lanka Cricket Muttiah Muralitharan has suggested that former Sri Lanka cricketer and ICC Match Referee Roshan Mahanama be appointed as

head coach of the Sri Lanka cricket team.

“This is my personal view, Roshan Mahanama is the man for the job, but Roshan must come forward and take it. I have spoken to him about it, and he said that he needs time,” Muralitharan said during an interview on a private television channel.

“Roshan is a disciplined cricketer. As players we looked up to him as an example and I have learnt a lot from him. For him discipline comes first, the national cricket team needs a person like him. The moment there is discipline everything will fall into place. Under him only the rest of the coaches should come for the ‘A’ team, Emerging, Under-19 etc., so that there is a link from the bottom to the top.

“There is always the talk that no local player is given the chance to coach the national team, so this is a great opportunity. Chandika Hathurusingha was given a huge chance to uplift the team but he lost it. Then the cricket board fell back on a foreign coach and appointed Mickey Arthur. I don’t think the coaching styles of Mickey Arthur or Grant Flower are suitable for Sri Lanka. If we can get Roshan, I can see a small light at the end of the tunnel for us to get out.”

Sri Lanka cricket has gone through an unstable two years, with head coach Arthur and batting coach Flower struggling in both the white ball formats and showing little signs of improvement in Tests. The contracts of both coaches come up for renewal in December this year. (ST)

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