Sri Lanka Cricket on Friday appointed former fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake as interim coach for an upcoming home series against Australia.
“Rumesh will handle only the Australian tour of Sri Lanka. We are still on the look out for a foreign coach,” Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) chairman Upali Dharmadasa told reporters.
The Australian team arrive in Colombo on July 30 to play three Tests, five one-dayers and two Twenty20 games during their tour that ends on September 20.
Ratnayake, 47, previously briefly held the post of assistant coach in 2007.
He made his Test debut against New Zealand in 1983 and took 73 wickets at an average of 35.10. During his 11-year one-day career spanning 70 games, he took 76 wickets and was also part of the 1983 and 1987 World Cup teams.
The right-arm bowler is best remembered for bowling Sri Lanka to their maiden Test victory against India at Colombo in 1985 by capturing nine wickets for 125 runs.
Sri Lanka’s former full-time coach, Australian Trevor Bayliss, left the side after the island finished runners up in the 2011 World Cup. His assistant Stuart Law was made interim coach for the just finished England tour.
But Law also quit in July to take up the head coach job in Bangladesh.
