"They were really down and I asked the people to support the Sri Lanka cricketers" - Sanath Jayasuriya after being appointed full-time head coach
Sri Lanka's newly appointed head coach Sanath Jayasuriya has revealed that all he did during his interim role was give the players confidence as they were down mentally. The 55-year-old believes the players have put in the hard work over the years, but underlined the need for luck at the same time.
The Sri Lank Cricket (SLC) recently announced that Jayasuriya has been appointed as the full-time coach after finding success in the interim capacity. He helped the Lankans register ODI series win over India and Test series victory against New Zealand at home. Sandwiched between the two was a resounding Test win over England at The Oval.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Jayasuriya said injecting confidence in the players did them a world of good and that already being good players helped. He said, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo:
"What I have always said is that it's all about confidence and trust. I created that around the team and that's very important. And I think there was a little bit of luck also. You may do a lot of work, but you need that luck sometimes. At the same time, the players are determined to do well. They know what they went through over the last couple of years."
"They were really down and I asked the people to support the Sri Lanka cricketers. They are a good bunch of cricketers and they are talented. Only thing I gave was confidence, and I am there with them. They can talk to me and discuss anything," Jayasuriya added.
Three consecutive wins over England and New Zealand have also put Sri Lanka in the frame to play in the World Test Championship (WTC) final next year. They are currently placed third with a win percentage of 55.56. India and Australia are only ahead of them with win percentages of 74.24 and 62.50, respectively.
"Sri Lanka Cricket has invested a lot of money to the 'brain centre'" - Sanath Jayasuriya
Sanath Jayasuriya, who will start his stint as full-time coach with the white-ball series against the West Indies, revealed that obtaining data ahead of every tour and playing every opposition has helped them on multiple levels.
The former left-handed batter stated:
"A very key area at the moment is the analysing department. That's why Sri Lanka Cricket has invested a lot of money to the 'brain centre'. We got some support from India too recently to educate our analysis department. It was very successful. And every tour we get data on the opposition, we go through it and discuss every detail."
Sri Lanka's white-ball series against the West Indies will begin on Sunday, October 13, in Dambulla.