Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) says it will assess the performance of national cricket team’s head coach Chris Silverwood, after the conclusion of the ICC T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA, this June and decide on whether to retain his services beyond it.
Silverwood, 49, an ex-England international who landed a two-year coaching deal with the SLC in 2022, was set to complete his stint on 14 April this year.
But, his current employers decided to extend his contract, to envelope the upcoming ICC T20 showpiece, to be co-hosted by the West Indies and the US.
When contacted SLC CEO Ashley de Silva, said that it was up to the brains trust of the game’s local ruling body, to assess the overall performance of the Yorkshireman, before arriving at a final decision to either retain or let go of him, following the conclusion of the T20 World Cup.
He added that therefore it would be inapt to comment on it for the time being, before the SLC Cricket and Technical Committees respectively, convene to adjudicate on the ex-Essex coach’s overall performance, with his current charges, in all formats of the game.
Silverwood, who was once described as being faster than Allan Donald, by ex-England bowling coach Bob Cottam, is the predecessor of current England head coach Brendon McCullum.
He took over after Sri Lanka had been without a full-time head coach since Mickey Arthur’s exit in December 2021, after his contract had expired.
After Arthur’s departure, SLC hired former champion fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake, to be the team’s stop-gap coach, at which point in April of 2022, Silverwood who was capped six times in Tests, was contracted on a two-year deal.
It was said at the time that before signing the former England fast bowler, the SLC and its Technical Committee, had approached several other international coaches, but they had all eventually shunned the offers, prompting them to hire Silverwood in the end.
Two former national coaches Paul Farbrace and Graham Ford (who has had two separate tenures with Sri Lanka), were mentioned as being among those, who had spurned the coaching offer of the SLC, at the time.
However, the former England pacer at the time of his appointment became the Sri Lanka men’s team’s eighth permanent head coach, in the last 10-year period, apart from the spate of interim coaches, who had taken the role on.
Sri Lanka are presently ranked eighth in red ball cricket, while in white ball cricket, they occupy one place above their Test ranking, and in the shortest format, they are placed eighth in the ICC World Rankings.