With all the speculations happening around who will replace Ravi Shastri as the head coach of Team India, there are reports that BCCI had offered former Sri Lankan legend Mahela Jayawardena the portfolio. The same report states that the Lankan legend rejected the offer. The report claims that he snubbed the offer because he wanted to coach the Sri Lankan national team
Jayawardena, who is also the coach of Mumbai Indians in the IPL, has been successful at winning titles with the franchise. As per BCCI rules, it clearly states that a person cannot hold another position when he is the Head Coach of the Indian side, whereas that is not the case as a Sri Lankan coach
Jayawardena has been a legend in Sri Lanka. One of the greatest batsmen of his era, he featured in 149 Test matches and 448 ODIs for Sri Lanka.
While he scored 11814 runs in Test match cricket, the classy batsman also amassed 12650 runs in the ODIs. In T20Is, Jayawardene scored 1493 runs in 55 matches. He has also hit a total of 54 centuries in international cricket, along with seven double centuries. Also, in 80 IPL matches, he has scored 1802 runs at an average of 28.60. He has also scored a hundred in IPL cricket.
Meanwhile, Shastri has made it clear that he will step down as Team India head coach after the T20 World Cup. He also reckons he has achieved all he set out to. Some reports state that former India captain Anil Kumble would be contacted once the T20 WC is over.
It would be interesting to see who finally bags one of the top jobs in the country.
