Shane McDermott to arrive in Sri Lanka as Afghanistan’s fielding coach

By Bipin Dani

Sri Lanka's former fielding coach Shane McDermott, who later joined the Bangladesh cricket team, has now joined the Afghanistan cricket team. 

The 43-year-old McDermott, who was born in Tasmania (Australia) and has coaching experience of players from Australia (Elite Development coach), Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (national fielding coach), will join the new team in Sri Lanka on February 1.

"The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) confirms the appointment of Shane McDermott as the Afghanistan National Team’s New Fielding Coach. McDermott is set to join the team on February 1, during Afghanistan’s all-format tour to Sri Lanka,” the ACB has said in a press release.

"Really excited to be a part of the Afghanistan Cricket Board! Looking forward to meeting all the staff and players on the 1st of February in Sri Lanka," the coach has said on his social media page.

McDermott was also a High Performance Coach with the South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmanian teams.
McDermott will replace Ryan Maron.

Interestingly, Afghanistan Cricket Board may be one of the rare full members, who have all foreign coaching staff.  
Johnathan Trott (head coach), Andrew Puttick (batting coach), Hamid Hassan (bowling coach), Shane McDermott (fielding coach) and Prasanth Panchada (Head Physio) are part of their coaching staff.

Now, the Afghanistan players are training in Abu Dhabi (UAE), it is learnt.
The visiting team will play one Test match, three ODIs, and 3 T-20Is in Sri Lanka.