Mahela Jayawardene will be England's batting consultant during the Test series against Pakistan in the UAE starting in October. Jayawardene, who has scored 11814 runs in Tests and 12650 runs in ODIs, will be a welcome addition to a squad that is inexperienced in tackling quality spin on dry pitches in UAE.
Jayawardene is a good hire for England. Given their inherent weakness against spin, hopefully he can impart some of his knowledge and wisdom into the team.
It was also announced that Paul Collingwood will join the setup for limited overs cricket, another astute hire.
Although Jayawardene's brief stint as a batting consultant came to an end at the end of the first Test, Trevor Bayliss said today that he would like him to continue on. I really hope that this comes to fruition as this would be a fantastic hire on a full time basis, especially with the upcoming World Twenty20 coming up next year - a format in which Jayawardene is the leading run scorer.
Quote:“We’d love to have him back so I’ll have to speak to Straussy about that,†said Bayliss, the England head coach, who worked with Jayawardene when in the same role with Sri Lanka. “The boys enjoyed him. I think he gave all of our players a little bit of a different perspective on things; a different way of thinking about how to play the game in Asian conditions.
“He’s a very down-to-earth, normal bloke. The guys were having a joke with him, taking the mickey out of him at the end and he was doing the same with them. To be honest, within a day or two it was like he was one of the team.â€
Speaking about his time in the England set-up Jayawardene told the ECB website: “I love the approach of the young guys who haven’t had a lot of experience in the subcontinent. Guys like Jonny Bairstow and James Taylor, plus Moeen Ali wants to learn and is always asking lots of questions.
“Even Belly [Ian Bell] and Cooky – they’re obviously experienced campaigners but the attitude they have is to improve. And there are naturally gifted players like Stokesy [Ben Stokes] who just enjoy these kinds of challenges.â€
Once again the Brits buying out people to aid their team at the expense of the poorer nations who can't afford to do so. Jayawardene should take his expertise back to his home country to aid the Sri Lankan team and let the English team figure it out on their own! 8)
Sri Lanka had every opportunity to hire Jayawardene but chose not to do so. And whose to say that he would even want to coach them? You don't even know how much Jayawardene was paid so to accuse England of buying overseas talent at the expense of other countries is a joke. But then we shouldn't expect anything else given your hatred if all things English. Finally, doesn't Mahela have every right to make money after finishing his international career? Smart teams employ the best talent available regardless of their country of birth.