Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is set to extend the contracts of its two foreign coaches which are to expire in August this year. Trevor Bayliss, the Head Coach, and Paul Farbrace, the Assistant Coach, have been with the Sri Lankan team since 2007 and they are likely to stay on with the team, presumably till the next World Cup in 2011.

The Secretary of the Cricket Interim Committee Nishanta Ranatunga told ‘Sunday Island’ that the board was happy with the two coaches and the management team that includes Jade Roberts, the trainer, and Tommy Simsek, the physiotherapist, and all four of them will continue.

"We have decided to extend the contracts of the coaches. We did an evaluation on their performance and the feedback we got was fairly good. They are doing a good job and we want them to continue," Ranatunga said.

He also added that for the Twenty-20 World Cup tournament, to be held in England next June, Sri Lanka will send the national ‘A’ team coach Chandika Haturusinghe as an additional coach. Several Sri Lankan players, including Thilan Samaraweera, who was on the peak of his form during Sri Lanka’s ill-fated tour of Pakistan, praised the impact the former opener had on his batting while being with the ‘A’ team after being dumped from the national team in 2006.

There will be an increase of support staff as well in England as Manoj Abeywickrama will join the team as its fielding coach. Abeywickrama had been doing duty with the Sri Lankan side for sometime, but was left out of the coaching staff sometime back and the move came in for heavy criticism by Ashantha de Mel, country’s Chairman of Cricket Selectors, after the Lankans fielded poorly during the 1-4 loss to India at home. De Mel charged that the Lankan team had neglected their fielding drills that time.

While the SLC may have plenty of good news for the coaches, the news is not so good for the CEO of the board, Duleep Mendis, who could effectively be sidelined from his role soon. The former captain is one of the longest serving members at SLC, but moves are now on to bring in former Thomian cricketer and retired Air Force officer Ajit Jayasekara to replace Mendis.

Air Commodore Jayasekara will initially come in as ‘additional CEO’ and, according to Ranatunga, will look into the administrative matters at SLC while Mendis will look after local and international cricket.

Mendis’ contract expires this December.

The 59-year-old Jayasekara had two stints as Manager of the national cricket team, from 2000-02 and 2003-04, and was a member of the Hemaka Amarasuriya headed Cricket Interim Committee for a brief period.

He was the Manager during Sri Lanka’s memorable run of ten successive Test wins, during 2001-02.

Initially, SLC was to advertise for the post of CEO, but later revised the decision and went ahead with the appointment of Jayasekara. Although Ranatunga declined to comment as to why the board didn’t advertise for the post, it’s believed that they feared political interference in appointing the CEO, the highest paid employee of the board at present.