Why SLC couldn’t retain Mickey Arthur

• SLC ExCo appoints 6-member committee to decide on next coach

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

There has been an aura of mystery surrounding the departure of popular national cricket team head coach Mickey Arthur, who completed his two-year contract with Sri Lanka Cricket at the end of the two-Test series against West Indies early this month and moved to take up a new assignment with English county Derbyshire.

Arthur took over a demotivated and struggling outfit from previous coach Chandika Hathurusingha in the first week of December 2019, and if he didn’t already have his work cut out, the outbreak of COVID-19 a few months later most definitely prevented him from carrying out his task wholly, with so many postponed international series and health protocols impeding his progress. But amidst that, Arthur set about gradually rebuilding the national side in all three formats – Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

Sri Lanka of course had not done too badly in the red-ball format, but in white-ball cricket they certainly needed an upheaval. In the second year of his contract Arthur was able to do that, bringing some uniformity into selection for the ODI and T20I sides, so that the teams were more or less settled and started to perform – most notably in the T20 World Cup in the UAE. The two Tests against West Indies was Arthur’s final hurrah with the team winning both to give him a memorable farewell.

“We were anyway going to do the evaluations of the coaching staff at the end of the T20 World Cup. That was a process which we commenced. When you go through the process it takes time and Mickey was approached by Derbyshire, and he opted to go with it because he wanted a confirmation from us and we couldn’t give him a 100% commitment whether for him to go ahead with something which he had in hand, rather than wait till we get back to him,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva.

It was towards the tail end of Arthur’s contract that the team had begun to start performing well, although his overall record was not much to crow about. It seems like SLC has done away with a coach who was beginning to show results.   

“In fact, we were not, we didn’t want to actually,” conceded De Silva. “It’s a matter of fact that he has done well in red-ball cricket, but again that process takes a little bit of time. In the meantime, he got this offer, so he opted for that.

“We have advertised for his position because he has already resigned, otherwise we would have evaluated and given him the feedback, and after that we would have taken a decision. But at the time we were not in a position to do that.

“We were in the process of evaluating and because we are also in the process of restructuring. We are currently discussing internally how it should be restructured in order to take the process forward. We were going to evaluate them and the rest of the support staff (not Mickey); we gave them an indication that they will have to reapply when it is advertised. Their contracts ceased in the first week of December after the West Indies Test series and we have advertised for all the positions in the papers.”

De Silva said that they had given 10 days from 4 December onwards, for prospective coaches to apply for the posts of head coach, and batting, bowling and fielding coaches of the national team, head coach of the ‘A’ team and assistant coach of the Emerging Squad.

“We have opened it up even to the local coaches. The applications will be reviewed, and the interviews will be conducted by a six-member committee appointed by the SLC Executive Committee. The committee will comprise about six people – two from the Technical and Advisory Committee, two from SLC, an independent person and the Director of Coaching (Tom Moody). The panel will recommend the suitable candidates to the ExCo who will take the final call,” said De Silva.

Zimbabwe here next month

Sri Lanka’s next international engagement is a white-ball series at home against Zimbabwe from 10-23 January, but De Silva was unsure whether a permanent head coach could be appointed before that.

“It will take a little bit of time, but we are planning to do it before the Zimbabwe series. If it doesn’t happen, we will have some local coaches running for the Zimbabwe series and then take a call before we go to Australia,” said De Silva.

Sri Lanka are due to host Zimbabwe for three ODIs, but De Silva said they were also looking at the possibility of including thre T20Is in the itinerary.

“It all depends on how many days of quarantine we will have to go through in Australia. We don’t know whether it is 10 or 14 days. Australia will have to get back to us.”

Australia will host Sri Lanka for a five-match T20I series from 11-20 February.

De Silva said that Sri Lanka would play their full side against Zimbabwe in the three ODIs because the matches were part of the ICC 2023 World Cup Qualifiers and most probably would be played in Colombo.

“Within the next week or so we will take a call. If we are playing the T20Is against Zimbabwe the venues for them have also to be decided,” he said.