Mahela Jayawardene resigns as consultant coach of Sri Lanka Cricket

Colombo [Sri Lanka], : Sri Lanka Cricket announced the resignation of former batter and skipper Mahela Jayawardene from the post of consultant coach of the national teams at various levels following a disappointing ICC T20 World Cup campaign in the West Indies and USA.

The ongoing T20 World Cup was poor for Sri Lanka as they failed to reach Super Eights. They lost to South Africa and Bangladesh in the Group Stage and could just register one win against Netherlands. Their game against Nepal was washed out due to rain. With just three points, Lanka finished at third spot in Group D.

SLC issued a statement on Wednesday announcing Jayawardene’s resignation.

“Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce that Mr. Mahela Jayawardena, who served as the ‘Consultant Coach’ of the SLC, has tendered his resignation with immediate effect. Jayawardena, during his tenure, helped implement significant changes to the structure of the national team ecosystem and the High-Performance Centre,” said the statement.

“Sri Lanka Cricket takes this opportunity to wish Mahela all the best in his future endeavours and thank him for the services he rendered during his tenure,” the statement concluded.

Ever since his appointment to the role in 2022, Jayawardene witnessed mixed results. After securing the Asia Cup title in 2022, Sri Lanka performed poorly in the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup and the 2023 50-over World Cup in Australia and India, respectively. While Lanka qualified for the Super 12s in 2022 T20 Cup, they finished at fourth in their group. In the 2023 50-over World Cup, Lanka finished ninth with two wins and seven losses, failing to secure qualification to 2025 ICC Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan. During his tenure, he also worked with U19 and Sri Lanka ‘A’ teams.

During his playing days, Jayawardene played 652 international games for SL, scoring 25,957 runs at an average of 39.15, with 54 centuries and 136 fifties. He is considered as one of the greatest batters of all time and the backbone of Sri Lanka’s famed 2000s-2010s batting, along with Kumar Sangakkara.

He secured the 2002 Champions Trophy and 2014 T20 World Cup with Sri Lanka as a player and ended as runners-up of 2007 and 2011 50-over World Cups to Australia and India.

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