SLC name coach shortlist

Sri Lanka Cricket on Monday revealed the names of the four men shortlisted to succeed outgoing head coach Trevor Bayliss, who stepped down from the position after the World Cup earlier this month.

While former Australian batsman Stuart Law has been handed the reins on an interim basis for the tour of England later this year, Tom Moody, who has coached the side before, Moody’s former assistant Trevor Penney and former England batsman Matthew Maynard are the other three men in the running for the top job.

Ex-Australian coach John Buchanan was ruled out of contention for Bayliss’ post, while erstwhile Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu has been revealed as the new batting coach.

“We’ve given Law a chance to handle the team on the England tour. And see whether he is going to fit into the scene,” Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee chief DS de Silva said.

“We knew about two months ago that Bayliss was leaving so we advertised in the web and papers, both internationally and locally. Nine responded from which we shortlisted five persons,” said de Silva.

“Everybody showed interest and we have already interviewed two of them on the phone.

“We wrote to Buchanan and he gave his terms but we cannot afford them.

“We have dropped him from the list. Moody is due to come back to us. When he was here we had a long chat with him and he showed some interest in the job.

“We are going to ask the other two - Penney and Maynard - to come and give a presentation. It will take another week or so. We couldn’t wait for that long so we decided to appoint Law for the England tour. Until the tour is over we won’t appoint a head coach.

Maynard, who played four Tests and 14 ODIs between 1988 and 2000, was Glamorgan’s head of cricket but resigned after a disagreement with the English county in late 2010, Cricket365reported.