Sri Lankans pin their hopes on new software

Colombo, March 12: Sri Lanka are adopting an advanced software used by football club Barcelona to manage their injury-prone cricketers as the national team train for the World Cup next year, officials said on Monday.

The island’s cricket board hopes the state-ofthe-art player management system will restore Sri Lanka’s prestige on the world stage after their worst year in international cricket.

The board spent $75,000 on the software, adapting it to suit its cricketers.

Officials said coupled with a match analysis system designed in-house, Sri Lanka could boast the most advanced player management technology of any cricketing nation.

“We are investing a lot of resources and technology to develop the game with an eye on the World Cup,” Sri Lanka Cricket chief Ashley de Silva said.

Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996 but have not repeated the feat since, despite twice making the finals. They were World T20 champions in 2014.

Under new coach Chandika Hathurusingha, the side has been rebuilding after a year of humiliating defeats and few wins.