Former India fielding coach R Sridhar is set to work with Sri Lanka’s cricketers, men and women, across all levels. He will conduct a “comprehensive 10-day fielding programme” and his appointment has been confirmed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The board confirmed that Sridhar would be working with the “men’s and women’s national squads, emerging squads, premier club players, and the national U19 team, and women’s ‘A’ team as well”.

However, Sri Lanka Women’s team, involved in the ongoing tri-series against India and South Africa, are likely to be available only for a part of the programme. The tri-series is set to finish on May 11, with even Sri Lanka in contention to make it to the final.

“Sridhar, a BCCI Level 3 qualified coach, brings a wealth of experience, having served as India’s fielding coach across more than 300 international matches from 2014 to 2021. Sridhar will begin the program with the Sri Lanka national men’s team and subsequently train other squads, where he will conduct fielding drills, skill-specific training, and simulated match scenarios, to replicate game conditions,” the press release from Sri Lanka Cricket read.

This isn’t the first time that SLC has been bringing in foreign coaches to run short programmes. Last year, the Rajasthan Royals’ high-performance director Zubin Bharucha conducted a brief programme aimed at raising the batting standards. SLC had also hired Wasim Akram and Jonty Rhodes to run a brief bowling and fielding programmes respectively in the last decade or so.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Men’s team will be in action at home when Bangladesh are scheduled to tour for a series across all formats. The two teams will face each other in two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is starting from June 17.