Tom Moody, Sri Lanka’s high profile director of cricket, has arrived In Sri Lanka and has been quarantined in a Colombo hotel for seven days. Cricket Age understand that even though Moody arrived in the Island in emergency after the postponement of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), his stay will be termed ‘official’ as Sri Lanka Cricket director!
Moody was appointed Sri Lanka’s director of cricket in March, a broad new role that will have him overseeing Sri Lanka’s international program and domestic tournaments. The appointment was made on the recommendation of Sri Lanka’s so called technical advisory committee headed by Aravinda de Silva.
The role will see Moody spend at least 300 days in Sri Lanka over the next three years focusing on “analysis of the future tour program, focusing on the domestic tournament structure, player welfare, education and skill development, coaching and support staff structure, high performance, and data analytics”.
Moody has been engaged by SLC for $200K salary per annum plus other remunerations. The three year contract requires Moody to spend 110 days in Sri Lanka annually although initially the discussion was for him to spend 180 days in Colombo. However, the parties had settled for little over 100 days.
After being hired for the top post, Moody has so far stayed in Sri Lanka only for few days, that too for a showoff press conference before his departure to India for the IPL, where he is the director of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Now again, as IPL has ended abruptly, Moody is fulfilling his Sri Lanka’s duty, thanks to a forced stay!
“He had no other choice but to come to Sri Lanka after IPL postponed. The Australian players, coaches, match officials and commentators were transported from India to the Maldives, as their government has Imposed travel pause pertaining to flights from India. Moody considered it as an opportunity to add some more days in his mandatory annual stay in Sri Lanka, so instead of going Maldives with his colleagues, he arrived in the Island” an Insider at SLC told Cricket Age.
Interestingly, COVID-19 in Sri Lanka has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, with over 2,500 cases being reported just yesterday. Moody, however, is committed to bring Sri Lanka cricket back on track, while the country is reeling under Covid crisis!
“He has arrived in official capacity. Even though the entire country is almost closed, with SLC, it’s high performance centre in Khetterama and all cricket clubs are also shut down, Moody is at work” a top SLC official told Cricket Age, when Inquired.
