Quote:Sri Lanka Cricket has taken a dim view of Mahela Jayawardene's resumption of a consulting role with England for 10 days of the forthcoming World T20. SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala labeled Jayawardene's temporary job "sad and disappointing", even while his board rejected the clustered provincial first-class tournament Jayawardene had played a leading role in devising last year.

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But with Sri Lanka now scheduled to play England in the group stage of the World T20, Sumathipala has taken issue with the potential sharing of inside information.

"I had a lot of respect and gratitude for Mahela's knowledge, but now he's advisor to a competing team of ours," Sumathipala said. "I'm very disappointed that a national captain, within a few months of retirement, has been retained by another team at a World Cup.

"You could go to a club, a province, an IPL kind of team, or a county. But this is a World Cup. You can't have a player who has just left your country's team joining a competitive nation. All the contracted players who are playing, once they retire from the game, should have at least 24 months before joining another team for giving advice or coaching."

Jayawardene played his last ODI for Sri Lanka in March last year, but had quit T20s in April 2014. His forthcoming role with England will end on March 25 at the latest, with Sri Lanka scheduled to play England on March 26.

"You need that minimum cooling-off period, because you were recently in the team," Sumathipala said. "You know the team's strengths and its weaknesses because you're inside the team. You know your team planning ahead of the World Cup. I think I've been very sad and disappointed by this."

Sumathipala said SLC would now look at introducing a no-compete clause in Sri Lanka's player contracts, in order to avoid the transfer of sensitive information. He also suggested Jayawardene had been unprincipled in taking up the role.

"I don't think this is just a matter of contract. You captained Sri Lanka, you played for your country, and after a few months you go and represent another country and advise against your own nation? I'm talking here about ethics of cricket."

Quote:"My role with England is to help develop their cricketers, and to help with how they should approach different challenges - like playing spin," Jayawardene said. "The pools hadn't been decided when I agreed to do it. England didn't hire me to give information on the Sri Lankan team. They have analysts and coaches to do that. I'm quite disappointed to see those comments from the board, to be fair."

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"By the World T20, I would have been out of the one-day team for 12 months, and out of the T20 team almost two years," Jayawardene said. "If the tactics of that dressing room haven't moved on in that time - if they are still playing the same way - then there's a problem, isn't it?

"There are also a lot of new players in this Sri Lanka team that I haven't played with. But even for the guys like Angelo Mathews, or Lasith Malinga, or Dinesh Chandimal, isn't the challenge to keep evolving?"

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Jayawardene said he had worked almost a year on the domestic cricket revamp that has now been scrapped by the Sumathipala administration. That work was unpaid.

"All that 12 months of work was put aside when they took over," Jayawardene said. "I am not upset, but I'm disappointed. If they don't recognise my work, then how am I supposed to work in that environment? Was their decision to scrap that made ethically?

"That said, they are an elected body, and they are entitled to do what they think is best. There are actually no hard feelings. I wish them all the best, and hope that they can take Sri Lankan cricket further."

Quote:“I haven’t spoken to Mahela about the role too much,” Sangakkara told the Guardian. “It’s awkward for him to talk about something that is in progress but I know what his approach will be, getting players to think about how they adapt to situations and manipulating fields against the spinners, which is key in the subcontinent.

“There will be a lot of valuable information but at the end of the day it’s down to the players who walk out on to the field. It’s down to them, in that moment, executing their skills. The England team approach looks very conducive to playing expressive, positive cricket.”

Asked about Sumathipala’s comments, he added: “There has been some talk about it but it’s nothing Mahela will take seriously – it’s just chitchat. Like me, Mahela has been out of the Sri Lankan Twenty20 side for two years and England have been lucky enough to invite him to be part of their coaching staff.

“It was a smart move by England and something any professional who has retired from the international game would accept. You would always prefer to give back to your own country first but the way Mahela conducted himself as a player for Sri Lanka over the years has been exemplary.”