“The (Sri Lankan) players need proper leadership and proper direction. And hopefully, the experience that I bring into the job is going to give them that. It’s going to be a tough ride for the players. It’s going to be hard work. But I’m comfortable we’ve got the skill there – to be able to mould it and put it into something that’s going to be really good because it (Sri Lanka) is a very proud cricket nation. And I’m comfortable that we’ve got the tools to make it work. We’ve got a good coaching staff. We’ve got some very skilled players. It’s just about getting all the parts of the jigsaw into place.”

- Mickey Arthur

 

John Michael “Mickey” Arthur, 52, is a former cricketer and one of the best international coaches in the cricket world today.

Presently, the Sri Lanka Head Coach, Arthur said this in January last year during a Sri Lanka versus India short-format series.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1968, Arthur played domestic cricket during 1986 to 2001 for teams Northern Cape (formerly Griqualand West), Orange Free State, and South Africa ‘A’.

Arthur became Coach of the national teams of South Africa (from 2005-10), Australia (2011-13), and Pakistan (2016-19) before he was appointed Sri Lanka Head Coach last December in place of outgoing Chandika Hathurusingha and Interim Coach Rumesh Ratnayake.

Before surprisingly becoming South Africa’s Head Coach in place of Ray Jennings, Arthur had guided Eastern Cape to the finals of their domestic T20 league. Then, under Mickey, South Africa could go to the 2007 World Cup as the World’s No. 1 ODI team.

He also guided them to nine consecutive unbeaten Test series too during the same period, when they recorded historic triumphs over England and Australia away from home.

In 2011, Arthur became the first overseas coach of Australia, but he was controversially sacked from the job only halfway through a three-year contract in 2013, after he had opted to axe four regular Australian players from a Test match during a series in India for not completing their “homework” in an incident the media named the “homeworkgate scandal”.

After taking over Pakistan in 2016 as his third international assignment, Arthur guided them to the number-one spot in both Tests and T20Is, while also helping them to clinch the 2017 Champions Trophy title. In August 2019, though, Pakistan chose not to renew Arthur’s contract, yet in a couple of months, a fourth international side was ready for his services. That was Sri Lanka.