Tom Moody Likely To Be Appointed As Director Of Cricket For Sri Lanka

Former Australia batsman and now a revered coach, Tom Moody is almost certain to be appointed as the Director of Cricket, in Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).

Earlier in the month, legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and former captain Kumar Sangakkara were named in the 4-member SLC committee, along with former players Aravinda de Silva and Roshan Mahanama.

The committee has created this new role of Director of Cricket in the board to revive cricket in the country as the Islander have been pushed into an abyss, particularly in Test cricket, since the retirements of several great cricketers. Of recent, Sri Lanka has lost their last 4 Test matches – two to South Africa away and two to a not-first-choice England team, that too at home.

Tom Moody has previously coached Sri Lanka to the 2007 World Cup final

Tom Moody, since his retirement as a player in 2001 has achieved plenty of success with several high-profile teams as a coach – the zenith of which is the IPL 2016 triumph with Sunrisers Hyderabad along with coaching the team to 5 playoffs in 7 seasons.

“I think it will be important for him to come as an independent person with a different view, someone who has been involved in cricket in Australia and understands their structure, who has been involved in the IPL and those structures, a person who has been involved in county cricket with Worcestershire and understands their structure, and also being involved with the Caribbean Premier League,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Aravinda de Silva as saying.

De Silva points at Tom Moody’s experience with the Sri Lankan team as a coach, where he coached the Islander to the final of the 2007 World Cup; however, the Mahela Jayawardene-led side lost to the might of Ricky Ponting’s Australia.

“We’re a committee and we need someone responsible and neutral working on certain areas with an open mind, who understands the culture, the players, the country’s culture, someone who’s been around. We need to blend and get the administrative side as well as the cricketing side.

“He’s got a lot of experience and understands more things about what some of the other countries are doing right, and we need to get the best things out of those countries that will suit our culture and then implement those,” De Silva added.

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