Reports: Sri Lanka to rope in Jonty Rhodes as fielding coach, Brett Lee as bowling coach

Jonty-Rhodes-and-Brett-Lee

Jonty Rhodes and Brett Lee. (Photo Source: Getty Images)

Sri Lanka are having a roller-coaster ride on the cricket ground in 2019. While they won a Test series in South Africa earlier this year, they had a poor run in the ICC World Cup. Recently, a second-string Sri Lankan side though lost an ODI series against Pakistan, they came back strongly to win the T20I series 3-0.

It was a great achievement for the team under a new captain in Dasun Shanaka and the islanders will hope to build on the success ahead of their campaign at the T20 World Cup in Australia next year. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is making efforts to avail the services of former South Africa player Jonty Rhodes as the fielding coach and former Australia speedster Brett Lee as the bowling coach, Ceylon Today reported.

Rhodes, 50, is one of the greatest fielders the game has seen and is quite popular in these parts, with his coaching skills in fielding. He has worked as the fielding coach of Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians and also applied for the position of the fielding coach of the Indian national team. Recently, he was in Sri Lanka to coach some school teams. Aiming to make Sri Lanka a strong team in both Tests and limited-overs, the SLC is aiming to get inputs from experts to share knowledge with the country’s coaches and senior players.

Rhodes, who played for SA between 1992 and 2003, appeared in 52 Tests and 245 ODIs to score over 8,000 runs with five international hundreds. He has taken 139 international catches.

Brett Lee to help Wasim Akram

Brett Lee, who has over 700 international wickets, is likely to join the likes of Wasim Akram, another legendary former pacer, to strengthen Lanka’s bowling attack which has not been up to the mark in recent times. Akram has shown interest in helping Sri Lankan bowlers in recent times.

Sri Lanka are also looking to take the help of Julian Wood, the powerful hitting coach from England. Wood has played 27 first-class matches in England in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is known for his training methods to equip batsmen in the T20 era.