Sri Lanka Cricket on Thursday (December 5) not only appointed Mickey Arthur as the national team's head coach but also brought in a new structure of coaching regime that sees Grant Flower taking over as the head coach of the 'A' side. This, with the new posts of head of national cricket development and chief cricket operations officer created for Tim McCaskill and Jerome Jayaratne to go about handling, respectively.
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McCaskill will be there to oversee the development of Sri Lanka's youth, provincial, district, and women's teams, while Jayaratne will be tasked with overseeing the development of the national, emerging, and A teams. They will be complementing Arthur and Flower with the rejig aimed at ensuring all players are developed properly and the transition towards the highest level isn't as difficult as it has been.
"Everything that I've seen so far has been very, very good. It's been outstanding," ESPNcricinfo quoted Arthur saying in effusive praise. "It's a whole new structure and a very unique structure - I think it's pretty unique in world cricket. It's why I prefer coaching internationally to coaching the T20 leagues, because you set up a programme for players 12 months of the year, instead of just walking into a T20 league, work there for a month, and you move on to the next gig."
"The thing that really attracted me was that I looked at the talent that was available and that's the key motivating factor. It's coming to watch these young players and help these young players fulfil their potential. And it was great to be at training this morning, because the amount of talent that we have here is great."
Sri Lanka's insipid domestic game structure, however, remains an issue. It has plagued the careers of even the country's best young batsman and pacer in Kusal Mendis and Lahiru Kumra who have graduated to this level without the kind of tools they need to be consistent. Bridging that gap and handling egos amid the administration, Arthur must be aware, will be his biggest challenge at the job.
"In the past, I knew that if I performed the role to the best of my ability we'll have longevity here, and we'll have some success," Arthur said. "And the success will be seeing Kusal Mendis become one of the best players in the world, it'll be seeing Kumara become one of the best bowlers in the world."
"If I can get those players believing in themselves and getting better and better, that's all I'm worried about because ultimately it's going to lead to wins, lead to good performances."
"The secret is hard work, there's nothing else. When we go out on the training ground, we work hard, we train to get better. I always say the intensity that you train with is what you take into a game. Intensity is not a light switch, you can't switch it on and off, you have to be at that level all the time."
Arthur's first assignment will be the two-match Test series in Pakistan, the country that sacked him as head coach earlier this year.
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)
