Lanka part ways with Moody ahead of World Cup

COLOMBO: Australian former international Tom Moody is set to leave his post as Sri Lanka’s director of cricket, officials said on Monday, weeks before the T20 World Cup.

The 56-year-old’s three-year contract is being terminated by “mutual agreement”, Mohan de Silva, secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), said.

A senior cricket source who did not wish to be named said that SLC “could not afford his fees in the long run”, despite having savings of over $40 million.

“We also feel we need a person who is more hands-on, who can spend more time in Sri Lanka,” the source added.

The source said that the former Test player was paid $1,850 a day plus expenses for the 100 days a year he was expected to spend in the country, which is suffering its worst economic downturn.

Moody will leave by the end of this month or before the T20 World Cup starts in Australia next month, another source said.

Former Sri Lanka head coach Moody was appointed director of cricket in February last year to help prepare the team for the T20 World Cup and the 50-over version in India in 2023. There was no immediate comment from the Australian, who last month said that he was taking a similar director of cricket post at Desert Vipers in the newly formed Uae-based International League T20.

Under Moody, Sri Lanka emerged earlier this month as surprise winners of the Asia Cup, seen as a tune-up for the World Cup. As director of cricket Moody drew up a performance-based pay structure which was resisted by the national squad.

But they were eventually forced to cave in following threats that they would be dropped unless they agreed. Moody had been Sri Lanka’s coach between 2005 and 2007, the years in which Sri Lankatastedconsiderablesuccessinthetestformat, and became World Cup runners-up. However, his latest stint with SLC atracted more brickbats than praise, with many questioning the need to hire an Australian to restructure the country’s domestic cricket when it had enough and more qualified cricketers within the country to do so.

His three-year contract mandates Moody to spend at least 300 days in Sri Lanka focusing on “analysis of the future tour programme, focusing on the domestic tournament structure, player welfare, education and skill development, coaching and support staff structure, high performance, and data analytics.