Former Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga is likely to be named Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach for the Australia tour. Malinga represented Sri Lanka for more than 15 years across all formats as he picked 101 Test wickets, 338 ODI wickets, and 107 T20I wickets in his career. Malinga played his last international game in March 2020.
He carried Sri Lanka’s pace attack single-handedly, more so in the shorter formats. Considering his phenomenal career, the High-Profile Cricket Advisory Committee has recommended to Sri Lanka Cricket’s Executive Committee to appoint him as a fast-bowling coach.
Lasith Malinga retired from international cricket in March 2020
However, his appointment would be a short-term deal as he is likely to be offered the job for this Australian tour only. Malinga hasn’t had any big coaching assignments previously though he worked with Mumbai Indians as a mentor in the 2018 season.
Meanwhile, according to a report in The Island, Malinga wasn’t the most likeable person as most Sri Lankan captains had an issue with him over his discipline. That might go against him while offering him such a big responsibility. The report further stated that in his playing he used to slow down the game deliberately so that the captains get suspended for the slow-over rate.
“He wasn’t the most likeable person in the dressing room with a most of Sri Lankan captains having concerns about his conduct,” the report stated.
“It is alleged that Malinga deliberately slowed down the over rate with the intention of suspending the captain, an allegation that SLC has not investigated. Cricket’s playing conditions at one point dictated that slow over rates would result in fines for players and suspension for the captain. Since then, the International Cricket Council has amended the playing conditions and the captain is no longer suspended,” he added.
Under Malinga’s captaincy, Sri Lanka won the T20 World Cup final in 2014 as Chandimal outed out from last 3 matches of the tournament as he was struggling for form.
However, his captaincy record isn’t encouraging overall as he lost all 9 ODIs as captain while in T20Is he won only 7 games out of 24.
Sri Lanka’s tour to Australia will begin on February 11 as they will play 5-match T20I series.
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