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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Rumesh Ratnayake anxious being assistant to Tom Moody by Srian Obeyesekere Nepal and Hong Kong are very close to achieving ICC one-day status, Rumesh Ratnayake, Development Officer with the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) coaching in the Asian region told the Sunday Observer. Ratnayake (41) said that his job which had seen him away for four years since 2001 in Nepal, Hong Kong and Bhutan had yielded the positive results of being able to predict that Nepal and Hong Kong were 'very close to The achieving one-day status.' A flamboyant hero in the country's early Test days when he bowled Sri Lanka to a historic first ever Test triumph over India when he held a diving return catch to dismiss the Indian captain Kapil Dev in 1985, Ratnayake said that he was in Sri Lanka to negotiate with the Sri Lankan cricket authorities the job of assistant coach to Tom Moody. As to his work in the Asian circuit, Ratnayake said, "It is a challenge for me to see that both Nepal and Hong Kong gain one-day status." He said that since he took over these two countries had gone from strength. While Nepal had a very good 'nose' for the game since 'they border India and have all the scope such as t.v. channels and therefore see a lot of cricket. Hong Kong, on the other hand, in Rumesh's words was 'blessed with a fantastic administrative structure.' The Sri Lankan along with two other Asian Development Officers namely Roger Binny of India and Iqbal Sikkander of Pakistan oversee sixteen 'development teams' drawn from Nepal, Hong Kong, Bhutan and the Maldive Islands which are groomed and developed from the ages of u-15, u-17, u-19 to national level under a format of tournaments organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). Of course, as Ratnayake, the former Peterite enthused but mindful of the daunting task was 'also to see that these countries are brought to Test status.' As to his chore as coach of the Asian XI which is due to play Africa in Durban from August 17 to 21, Ratnayake said 'it was indeed an honour for me and my country to be in the shoes of such a job in this inaugural series,' the first of its kind to be handed to a Sri Lankan. He was felicitated by Brendon Kuruppu, the Executive Director of Austasia where the former Ananda College and Sri Lanka opening batsman, who was manager of the Sri Lanka team till recently, on Wednesday. Ratnayake helps out in the Cricket Academy work headed by Kuruppu. In fact, the former Lankan cricketer turned ruggerite in also contributing his mite towards the indoor rugby tournament to be worked out shortly formulated by Kuruppu and Ivor Keerthipala. |
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