• No decision taken to replace the Australian 
• Rumesh brought back as stop-gap measure

Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket Team Head Coach Jamie Siddons has taken extra leave for personal reasons at the end of the Asian Games and is still to confirm his availability for the team’s home white-ball series against Australia in December, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) CEO Ashley de Silva told The Sunday Morning Sports.

Siddons, 62, took the reins of Chamari Athapaththu’s side in March this year, replacing long-serving former national fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake on a 12-month long contract, with his primary assignment being the concluded International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s T20 World Cup in England last July.

“At the moment, Jamie [Siddons] has asked for additional leave till December,” de Silva said when asked of speculation which had been rife of the Australian being replaced by Ratnayake both in the short and long term.

However, he stated that no final decision had been taken by SLC yet on replacing Siddons as the Sri Lanka Women’s Team Head Coach, insisting that any call to that effect would depend on the outcome of further discussions between the Coach and SLC.

“We need to see what Jamie’s position is going to be on his availability after he finishes his leave. As of now he is the Head Coach and any decision on his continuation will be made only afterwards.”

The SLC CEO said that in Siddons’s absence, his predecessor Ratnayake had been named the stop-gap Coach for the women’s team as they prepare for the second edition of the 2026 ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy tournament in Bangkok next month.

The 10-team event played in the T20I format is set to feature Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, the UAE, and Sri Lanka in Group A, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, and Thailand (hosts) in Group B.

Asked whether Siddons would be available for the visit of the Australian Women’s Team later this year, de Silva emphasised that it was too early to give a definitive answer, reiterating that it would rely entirely on the Australian.

Australia, led by Sophie Molineux, are due to arrive in Colombo on 10 December for a three-match ODI and three-game T20I series against their hosts. 

Under Siddons, Athapaththu’s team clinched the Silver medal at the recently concluded Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, losing to India in the final by 147 runs last month.

Preceding that competition, they had also been defeated by Harmanpreet Kaur’s team in the Asia Cup final by 72 runs in the UAE, but had otherwise shown marked improvement during Siddons’s tenure.

The team has thus far recorded a win percentage of 73.3 for an overall record of 22 wins, eight losses, and one no-result under the guidance of Siddons.

However, according to cricket analysts, the team’s inability to see off regional powerhouse India in the white-ball format has continued to be Sri Lanka’s Achilles heel under their overseas Coach, who had previously functioned as the Bangladesh Women’s Cricket Team Head Coach from 2007 to 2011.

Former Sri Lanka fast bowler Ratnayake, who starred in his nation’s maiden Test win in 1985, served as the women’s team Head Coach from early 2023 to late 2025 as the national side transformed from being underdogs to a competent outfit.