Sri Lanka: Dias new coach, Yardley in charge of spinners (10 May 1998)

10 May, 1998

Roy Dias - new coach, Bruce Yardley in charge of spinners

Daily News

CRICKET BOARD president Thilanga Sumathipala confirmed the new appointments of former Test cricketer Roy Dias (coach) and Ranjith Fernando (Manager) of the national cricket team at a media-briefing yesterday at the BCCSL Headquarters.

Roy Dias a former test vice captain and considered to be one of the most stylish batsmen in the world was confident of moulding Sri Lanka into a more competitive outfit. He replaces Bruce Yardley the present national coach.

"Bruce Yardley will be going back home this month and will be back shortly and will be in charge of the spinners clinic until the World Cup in June next year," said Cricket Board president Thilanga Sumathipala.

"My first priority is fielding. Since the fielding during the South African tour had dropped twenty percent, I will be looking forward to improve and win the forthcoming New Zealand Test series," said Dias.

Forty-five-year-old Dias has played in 20 Tests matches and has scored over 1,300 Test runs and was tagged among the best fielders. His double hundred stand with Duleep Mendis in 1985 against India under Kapil Dev where both Mendis and Dias scored hundreds to rescue Sri Lanka was out of this world.

Dias' coaching appointment is for one year and Ranjith Fernando will manage the national team for the New Zealand and Independence Cup tournaments to be held in Sri Lanka.

The new Cricket Board president Thilanga Sumathipala has drawn up a National Development Plan for the improvement of the game by decentralising the Cricket Board activities and restructuring the development programs.

The BCCSL is hoping to get down separate coaches for each department of the game in the future and Bruce Yardley who has tendered his resignation will handle the spin department till his term is over in June 1999. Yardley took up the appointment in January 1997 as national coach.

Manager Duleep Mendis, too, has informed the Board his non-availability as cricket manager for two months due to personal reasons.

While Sumathipala thanked Mendis for a fine job done during his tenure, Roy Dias thanked the Cricket Board for having confidence in appointing him as the national cricket coach.

Dias also emphasised on the youngsters who have performed well and also the South African 'A' tour which is scheduled to take place in August this year.

He also pointed out the importance of new methods of coaching via video films, programming etc. that gives one ample evidence of a player's strong and weak points. South Africa has done it very successfully .

Dias has played with Ranatunga and under him and is confident that he could gain one hundred percent from the players.

Access - unlucky

RAIN robbed Access of a possible victory in their Mercantile 'A' division 50-over league cricket tournament match over Union Assurance at the NCC grounds yesterday.

Access who batted first, made 195 in 41.5 overs and Union Assurance were in a bad way, with 42 for 4 wickets in 13 overs when rain stopped play at 3.15 pm.

Access 195 in 41.5 overs (Brendon Ediriweera 33, Indika Galagoda 20, Indika de Saram 34, Jeewantha Kulatunge 15, Gayan Wijekoon 20, Asela Pathirana 40, Sanjeewa Ranatunga 5 for 38, D. Dinuka Hettiarachchi 3 for 22).

Union Assurance 42 for 4 wkts off 13 overs (Sanjeewa Ranatunga 11 not out, Upul Chandana 10 not out, Pramodya Wickremasinghe 4 for 22).

Today, there will be two matches: Defending champions Seylan Bank vs Commercial Bank at the NCC grounds and Union Assurance vs John Keells at the Saravanamuttu Stadium

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)