Former Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu will coach the national side during the series against Ireland, England and South Africa, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced yesterday.
The 43-year-old Atapattu will replace Englishman Paul Farbrace who was appointed assistant coach to the English national side just four months into his Sri Lankan job, last week.
Fielding coach Ruwan Kalpage has been made assistant coach for the same period, a short statement from SLC said on Friday.
Atapattu who has been a part of Sri Lanka’s national coaching set up since August 2011, first as batting coach before being promoted to the ranks of assistant coach in 2013 was one of the two shortlisted candidates last November to replace Graham Ford.
Atapattu, though considered a long term prospect to take up the country’s top coaching post was overlooked when Sri Lanka Cricket appointed Farbrace in December.
His appointment, though at a challenging time, gives the former national skipper a real claim for the job on permanent basis but it will depend on Sri Lanka’s performances during the English series and the subsequent home series against World’s number one ranked Test side South Africa.
Chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya on Friday said that Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas, the fast bowling coach and Ruwan Kalpage, the fielding coach should come with a fresh strategy to face the Englishmen during the forthcoming series after Farbrace left with all possible secrets.
“Now he has joined England. He was with the team and he knows the team inside out, the players’ strengths and weaknesses. So it’s a worrying factor,” Jayasuriya said on Thursday.
Sri Lanka leave for Ireland next Friday for two ODIs before meeting England in a single Twenty20, five ODI and two Test series starting on May 20.
Atapattu played 90 Tests from 1990 to 2007 and averaged 39 with the bat, making 16 hundreds along the way. He also won 268 one-day international caps, scoring over 14,000 runs combined.
