Reports: Mahela Jayawardene Tipped To Be Sri Lanka U-19 Consultant

Former Sri Lankan captain and the current Mumbai Indians’ head coach, Mahela Jayawardene has reportedly shown his interest in coaching the Sri Lanka U-19 team.

According to a report published in nation.Ik, Jayawardene has shown his interest ‘in principle’ to take over as consultant of the Sri Lankan U-19 team from October this year.

‘’We (SLC) are not aware of such a move. The move would have been made by the Technical Committee (headed by Aravinda de Silva),” a senior SLC ex-co official meanwhile disclosed. ‘’Our efforts to contact Jayawardene on the possible new appointment were not successful last afternoon,’’ he added.

If the reports emerge to be true the island nation could have the services of one of the best tacticians of the game in Mahela Jayawardene for their 2022 U-19 World Cup campaign.

The 2022 U-19 World Cup will be the 14th edition of the event that will comprise as many as 16 teams. The West Indies will be hosting the event for the first time in history.

Eleven countries- Australia, India, Afghanistan, South Africa, defending champions Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England, West Indies, Zimbabwe- have already qualified for the event by virtue of a top-11 finish in the last quadrennial event.

Sri Lanka, who finished 10th in the last U-19 World Cup, has never won the competition in their history.

Ahead of the U-19 World Cup, Sri Lanka is also set to play a Youth Asia and bilateral series against the likes of India and England later this year.

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