Mickey Arthur and Grant Flower stay back in UAE

By Bipin Dani

Two coaching staff member of the Sri Lanka Cricket team – head coach Mickey Arthur and batting coach Grant Flower – have not returned with the team but have stayed back in the UAE. The team, which could not advance to the semi-finals of the World Cup, returned on Saturday. 

"They (Arthur and Flower) have not stayed back to watch the World Cup final but they have sought a short break and are also awaiting their fate with the national team,” a top ex-co member said.  

Arthur's contract ended with the World Cup, whereas Flower's contract runs till December. 

Arthur is likely to return to Sri Lanka tomorrow.

Considering the team's improvement, especially the young players performing well, both are keen to continue with the team and await the evaluation report to be made by the Technical Advisory Committee, headed by Aravinda de Silva. 

Only a few days are left for the upcoming series against the visiting West Indies team, and SLC may have kept the staff for now.

However, according to the sources, Muttiah Muralitharan and few others in the advisory committee are keen on having Roshan Mahanama to take this task. Interestingly, Mahanama, the former ICC match-referee himself is a member of the committee and has no coaching experience but that may not come in the way for him to be involved with the team. 

"Did Ravi Shastri have coaching experience? Also, Mahela Jayawardane was a strategist but has now become a successful head coach of the Mumbai Indians in the IPL," the ex-co member argued.