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Former Sri Lanka skipper Hashan Tillakaratne has been appointed as the head coach of the women's national team. The former international batsman will stay on the post till December 31, 2021.
Hashan took over the the post formally on Wednesday, replacing Roy Dias, and termed the opportunity to work with the women's national team an "honour and privilege". He praised the players by calling them "talented and skilful" and revealed that he is looking forward to the upcoming challenge that comes to him with the new post.
More about Hashan Tillakaratne
The left-handed batsman played 83 Tests and 200 ODIs for the Sri Lanka team from 1989 to 2003. Hashan scored 4545 runs in the longest format and 3789 in the one-dayers at the highest level. His Test average was 42.87 while in ODIs, he scored at an average of 29.60. He hanged up his boots in 2004 at the highest level and two years later called time on his entire cricket career. Later on, he served as the batting coach of the men's national team.
The head coach aims to manage the "talents girls" in the Sri Lanka women's team "properly". He revealed that the process has already started as the players are doing exercises to keep themselves fit and sending the video clips to the the coach. It is worth noting that the Sri Lanka women's team haven't played any international game since the Women's T20 World Cup last year.
"What they want is to justify the money being put into women's cricket by the ICC," Tillakaratne said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. "Everyone knows about Chamari Athapaththu, but there are other talented girls also. They just need to be handled properly."
"We need to analyse and identify what our strengths are. One key aspect I'm looking at is their fitness. Right now, the girls are doing their fitness workouts on their own, and they're sending us over their video clips. So they're quite keen and committed, that's a plus point," he added.