Harsha de Silva named Sri Lanka women's head coach

Harsha de Silva has been appointed Sri Lanka women's head coach, reprising the role he had performed between 2010 and 2013. De Silva's term is for two years, and he officially begins on August 15, several weeks before India women's forthcoming tour of the island. The other major assignment on the horizon is the World T20 in the West Indies, scheduled for November this year.

A domestic right-arm seamer in his playing days, de Silva holds a Level 3 coaching qualification, and had been the women's head coach at the Valley District Cricket Club in Brisbane. De Silva replaced Hemantha Devapriya in the position, after Devapriya resigned five months before the end of his stipulated contract, in June.

Among de Silva's long-term concerns will be to shake Sri Lanka out of an ODI rut that has now stretched for several years. Sri Lanka have lost 12 of the last 13 matches they have played - a sequence that stretches back to last year's World Cup. Their T20 form is marginally better, but not by much. They had defeated Bangladesh in the recent Asia Cup - a tournament which Bangladesh went on to win - but have won only three of their last 11 T20 internationals.

SLC has, however, recently begun to invest in women's domestic cricket, and will hope that de Silva can help translate those investments into results at the top level.