Performance of SL women's cricket Head Coach unsatisfactory, says SLC

By Revatha S. Silva

The present Head Coach of the Sri Lanka women's national cricket team Harsha de Silva will be asked to leave his job, 'The Sunday Morning Sports' reliably learnt. "Yes. We are not going to extend his contract. It is expiring this August. The reason is his performance which is unsatisfactory," an ex-co member of present Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) told 'The Morning Sports' on Friday on the condition of anonymity. Former Coach for three years - De Silva, 48, a former first-class cricketer for Colts Cricket Club, earlier completed a three-year tenure as Coach of the Sri Lanka women's side, from 2010-13, before former first-class bat Hemantha Devapriya took over in his position. De Silva was again signed up as national women's Coach for a two-year term in August 2018. His tenure is to lapse in August this year. De Silva is currently staying in Australia. Mahesh and Lanka interim coaches - "Both Mahesh Weerasinghe and Lanka De Silva are currently coaching the national women's emerging and Under-19 teams. They will look after the main national side too, for the time being," the said official added. De Silva began his coaching with his school St. Joseph's College, Colombo and later coached two club cricket teams, including a women's one, in Queensland, Australia. Continuously poor performance - Under De Silva, Sri Lanka last played in the 13th ICC T20 World Cup in February and March in Australia. They managed to beat only Bangladesh in that tournament before being eliminated from the first round. Sri Lanka's poor performance in women's international cricket has been a talking point over the years with them being unable make any notable stride for over a decade or so. Presently Sri Lanka is ranked poorly at eighth place in both ODIs and T20Is. Here and there, they have produced notable individual performers such as Shashikala Siriwardeme and Chamari Atapattu.