Just when Sri Lankan women’s team looked like they are gaining stability, the resignation of head coach, Hashan Tillakaratne, has rocked the team. Hashan, back in 2021 was appointed as Sri Lanka women’s team head coach and was initially roped in for a 7-month serving period that as expected was further extended.
It always was likely that he will continue to hold the position for a further two to three years, but wasn’t that long as he’s moved shores from a developing cricketing nation to another. Its come to notice that Hashan has been offered to be the head coach of the Bangladesh Women’s Cricket team and having accepted the contract, he is expected to take charge from the 1st of November.
The news flash was confirmed by The Daily Star and in a byte, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Director and Women’s Wing Chairman, Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel, said, “He will join from November. We had held talks with him during the Women’s Asia Cup. Now, everything has been finalised. He will be arriving in Bangladesh in one or two days.”
Former captain, Hashan Tillakaratne was part of the 1996 World Cup-winning team. In his coaching stint, before coaching the Sri Lankan women’s team, he coached the Sri Lanka men’s U-19 side from 2018-20 and also served as a batting coach to the Sri Lanka Emerging team. In franchise cricket, he was seen linked up with the Kandy Tuskers as the head coach in the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL).
In a career spanning over 15 years, he has played 83 Tests in which he scored 4545 runs with 11 hundred and a 40-plus average. He also played 200 ODIs in which he scored 3789 runs and also kept wickets part-time.
Sri Lankan women’s team in their most recent assignment toured Bangladesh for the 8th edition of the tournament and the side after a hesitant start, played exceedingly good cricket and went on to make it to the Finals of the tournament, but couldn’t clinch their maiden title as they were completely overshadowed on all fronts, by the Indian side. Previously, the side lost to Pakistan during their away series, but the team bounce back well against India at home and a set of consistent faces highlighted the team’s efforts of building stronger.
It is very little cricket that the Bangladesh women’s team play, but they’ve made the most of it on all occasions as repeated impressive performances from the side now have their cricket at a stage ready for expansion. Bangladesh marginally missed making it to the top 4 during the Asia Cup, but did well in the recently concluded, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier that they went on to win to make successive appearances on the world stage.
