Protect local coaches

by Rex Clementine

The national cricket team has been served by some two dozen Head Coaches in the last two decades and having seen cricket from close quarters since the days  of Dav Whatmore to that of the incumbent Chris Silverwood, you can safely say that the knowledge of local coaches is as good as those of foreigners.

We have had some brilliant local coaches over the years like Roy Dias, Marvan Atapattu, Chandika Hathurusinghe overseeing the national team. We have also seen how the likes of John Dyson, Nic Pothas and Mickey Arthur operate and there was nothing extraordinary in them compared to the locals. Some rare exceptions were Trevor Bayliss,  Graham  Ford and Tom Moody. The success the national team had during their tenures bears witness for that.

You get the feeling that  local coaches don’t get the credit they richly deserve and often we start realizing their value when they are recruited by other countries. Having first paid peanuts, we then try to pay them fantastic salaries to ensnure their defections. In some cases we take the extreme measure of changing the conditions too like in 2018 when Thilanga Sumathipala left no stone unturned in obtaining the services of Hathurusinghe.

The case of Naveed Nawaz is something similar as we should have  never let him go to Bangladesh as he had proved his worth during his first stint with SLC. There’s no doubt that Naveed has the credentials to become the Head Coach at the moment but some felt that it was too early for him.

Just imagine this, Bangladesh cricket team is facing some serious trouble at the moment and if they decide it is time to part ways with the coaching staff and bring in someone familiar with the system like Naveed and offer him twice the salary that SLC pay him, wouldn’t he be tempted to go?

Former Sri Lanka  cricketer Upul Chandana is someone who is so underrated. He’s been into coaching for close to 20 years now but unfortunately he doesn’t get the recognition he duly deserves.

Upul for a long duration had  been sidelined to the Sri Lanka Under-19 team. He seemed to be the permanent Fielding Coach with little room or scope for promotion. He had done a brilliant job as well as every time  you took a look at our junior team performing, you were amazed by the skill set of the young players. It has been argued that Upul is ideal to function as the Fielding Coach of the national team, a plea that has fell on deaf ears.

Last year when SLC conducted the T-20 tournament ahead of the World Cup in UAE, Upul was put in charge of Grey team and he delivered as that team went onto win the title.  This year, SLC is conducting a similar tournament and the coaches have been named. You would have expected the man who won the title last year to be named as one of the Head Coaches. Alas, Upul finds himself demoted to Assistant Coach this time around. What crime has he committed? The country needs to know.