Sri Lanka will not name a successor to head coach Trevor Bayliss until after the tour of England which starts next month. Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee chairman DS de Silva said because of the time factor they had appointed Stuart Law as interim coach for the England tour.
Law was assistant to Bayliss, who quit as head coach after four years at the end of the World Cup, where the Sri Lankans lost to hosts India in a dramatic final earlier this month. Law, a former Australian cricketer, is one of four coaches short-listed by Sri Lanka Cricket to succeed Bayliss.
"We've given Law a chance to handle the team on the England tour and see whether he is going to fit into the scene," said De Silva.
The other three coaches in the running for the top job are former coach Tom Moody, former assistant coach Trevor Penney and Mathew Maynard, the former England cricketer presently director of cricket at Glamorgan. "We knew about two months ago that Trevor Bayliss was leaving so we advertised in the web and papers as well both internationally and locally. Nine responded from which we shortlisted five persons," said De Silva. "Everybody showed interest to undertake the head coach position. We already interviewed two of them on the phone. One of the nine was (former Australian coach) John Buchanan.
"We wrote to Buchanan and he gave his terms but we cannot afford it. We have dropped him from the list," he added.
"Moody is due to come back to us. When he was here we had a long chat with him and he showed some interest in the job."
De Silva said that Penney and Maynard would be invited shortly to come to Sri Lanka and make a presentation. Former Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu has also been approached by Sri Lanka to become the national team's batting coach. "We'll take a decision on Monday whether to appoint Marvan as the batting coach for the England tour," said De Silva. Sri Lanka play a series of three tests and five one-day internationals on the tour of England.