SLC to appoint new women’s head coach in August

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is exploring the possibilities of appointing a new head coach for the Women’s Cricket Team ahead of the ICC World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SLC, Ashley de Silva, stated that the new head coach would assume duties from August as the board would not extend the two-year contract of current head coach Harsha de Silva.

“We are currently reviewing the performances of all coaches and we decided not to extend the contract of Harsha de Silva,” CEO Ashley de Silva told the Daily News yesterday.

“We gave him a two-year contract, however, at this time we have decided to explore forthwith the possibilities required to attain the services from another coach,” added de Silva.

Ashley de Silva further stated that they have already commenced the recruitment process and have identified a possible candidate. “But we won’t consider any foreign candidates for the position”, he added.

Harsha de Silva took over the duties as Head Coach of the Women’s Cricket Team in August 2018, but has been unable to produce the desired results during that period.

Under his guidance, Sri Lanka recorded just a solitary win out of the 12 One Day Internationals and won six matches out of the 28 Twenty20 Internationals that were played.

The Women’s Cricket team finished fourth in the group stage at the 2018, and 2020 T20 World Cup and also lost the home series to India and England.

Also, the Women’s team lost the two bilateral series to South Africa and Australia.

Sri Lanka was also considered as favourites to win the Gold Medal at the South Asian Games (SAG) in Nepal last December, but they were defeated to Bangladesh in the final encounter.

The Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifying Tournament was set to be held in Sri Lanka in July, but the ICC postponed the event due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, United States, West Indies, and Zimbabwe were the other teams set to compete in the Qualifying Tournament with the three top teams progressing to the World Cup, which will be held in New Zealand in February, next year.