The SLC has brought all speculations about Sri Lanka ‘A’ team head coach post to a halt by announcing the former Sri Lanka U19 coach, Roy Dias as the new head coach of Sri Lanka ‘A’ Team.
Accordingly, former Sri Lanka ‘A’ coach Avishka Gunawardena who is replaced by Dias, will be in charge of the Sri Lanka Emerging squad. The news was confirmed to ThePapare.com by the chief executive officer of SLC, Ashley de Silva. The first hurdle for Dias will be to prepare the fittest squad for upcoming India ‘A’ team tour.
Silva also said that the rumors about the former Sri Lanka batting coach Tilan Samaraweera being appointed as the head coach of the ‘A’ team are untrue.
SLC organises important tours for second-string teams
Sri Lanka Cricket has managed to organize key tours for their ‘A’ team and Emerging team in the coming months, ThePapare.com learns.
The reason for this revamp is that SLC identifies Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the international arena and is also a result of not having a strong second tier team.
Under Avishka Gunawardena, Sri Lanka ‘A’ team has recorded some of the most remarkable wins the side has seen and has been a successful outfit overall. Their past three tours were all rare wins.
They whitewashed Ireland at home and won the unofficial Test series in Bangladesh 1-0 and drew the three-match one-day series 1-1. They also achieved a rare feat by winning an unofficial Test series in West Indies against them, 2-1.
They also drew the one-day series 1-1 in the same tour. With such performances, it was, in fact, a surprise call from SLC to demote Gunewardena.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ team will tour India for 2 unofficial Tests and 5 one-dayers’ as the first assignment under the new coach.
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