Board postpones visit by specialist bowling coaches

The planned visit of Australian fast bowling expert Darrel Foster and specialist spin coach Peter Philpot to Sri Lanka in October have been postponed by the cricket board.

A board media release on Thursday had revealed that Philpot, a former Australian leg spinner, would conduct a series of sessions (theory, video analysis, net sessions) with national players at various levels during a two-week period in October.

Darrel Foster, who helped set-up the BCCSL Fast Bowlers Unit with Rumesh Ratnayake, has been a frequent visitor to Sri Lanka and was also expected to conduct a two-week programme in October.

The planned programmes have not been cancelled according to the BCCSL and are likely to take place instead in December and January.

Foster was going to provide assistance to Suresh Perera, whose bowling action had been reported as being suspect by umpire Steve Bucknor in the recently concluded series against India.

Chief Operations Manager, Bandula Warnapura, stressed today that Foster's assistance was to have taken the form of a second opinion and his absence during the six-week assessment period stipulated by the ICC would not undermine the process.

"The evidence and tapes were received from the ICC last week and Champika Ramanayake (fast bowling coach) will now be working with Suresh (Perera)," he said.

Batting legend Barry Richard's two-week coaching stint with the national players, which starts next week, will go ahead as planned.