The timely intervention from Young and dynamic Sports Minister Harin Fernando has stopped Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) from becoming a laughing stock as now Roy Dias has been given the responsibility of the A team coach for the challenging India tour in June, Cricket Age reliably learns.
On April 26, Cricket Age broke the news that SLC mysteriously removed Avishka Gunawardana as A team coach.
By removing Avishka, SLC had finalized former national team batting coach Thilan Samaraweera as his successor. However, when Harin heard about the development, which was taken by the SLC at management committee meeting on Friday, he immediately intervened and convinced the board to opt for more experienced and authoritative Roy Dias.
“The honorable Sports Minister knows the dynamics of the game and is a passionate follower as well. He communicated with SLC administration and convinced them to put Roy Dias as A team Coach instead of Thilan Samaraweera. As some of the SLC officials were also not in favour of Samaraweera, at the end the right decision was taken” an insider at Sports Ministry told Cricket Age.
It is noteworthy that Thilan Samaraweera has turned out one of the least successful coach at every level. In 2017, Samaraweera had been removed as a batting consultant of Bangladesh even after being offered an extension. Later, just to make Sri Lanka’s head coach Chandika Hathurasingha happy, SLC had hired him as batting coach, but he failed miserably there as well.
Then, in December 2018, he was removed from the batting coach position midway through the New Zealand tour. Later, SLC appointed Jon Lewis as his successor and put Samaraweera at board’s high performance center at Khetterama.
Roy Dias, meanwhile, has proved his credentials as coach as well, by guiding Sri Lanka national and Under-19 team, Oman, Malaysia and Nepal team’s in the past. The coaching of Roy Dias was instrumental in the success of the Nepal team in different associate cricket tournaments.
An elegant and stylish right-hander batman of his time, Roy Dias played 20 tests and 58 ODIs for Sri Lanka.
