Sri Lanka to name Bayliss' successor after England tour

COLOMBO // 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 after four years at the end of the World Cup, where the Sri Lankans lost to India in the final earlier this month.

Law, a former Australia cricketer, is one of four coaches shortlisted 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," De Silva said.

The other three are their 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 … both internationally and locally. Nine responded from which we shortlisted five," De Silva said.

"Everybody showed interest to undertake the head coach position. We already interviewed two of them on the phone. One of the nine was [the former Australia 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 Penney and Maynard would be invited to make a presentation.

Marvan Atapattu, the former Sri Lanka captain, has also been approached to become the team's batting coach and a decision will be made today as to whether he will be appointed for the England tour. Sri Lanka play three Tests and five one-day internationals on the tour of England.