Sri Lanka eye ex-Bangladesh coach to head team

Colombo: Sri Lanka are in talks to hire former Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha to groom their national team for the 2019 cricket World Cup, sources said on Thursday.

The 49-year-old Sri Lankan stepped down from the Bangladesh team earlier this month after a disastrous tour of South Africa. Since then there has been speculation he is to take the job of head coach at Sri Lanka Cricket which has been vacant since South African Graham Ford quit in June.

Sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara declined to comment on the talks but said he hoped the former Test player would take on the job.

“I (would) certainly welcome Hathurusingha to prepare our team for the next World Cup,” Jayasekara told repo- rters here.

“But I don’t want to say anything about the discussions that are taking place.”

Under Hathurusingha, perennial minnows Bangladesh made rapid strides in world cricket, reaching the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy tournament in England this year.

But he came in for criticism during Bangladesh’s recent tour of South Africa, where the team failed to register a single win.