Rumesh Ratnayake ready for the challenge in his debut with the women’s team
The newly-appointed women’s national head coach Rumesh Ratnayake sounded and appeared all systems ready for the challenge that lies in his debut coaching tenure with the women’s team, only days ahead of the Women’s T20 World Cup.
A veteran of having coached the men’s team over several stints, and the last role an interim capacity with them, Ratnayake for the first-time in his years-long career, finds himself teamed up in the women’s version.
“As somebody said this is something I’ve never done. I’m taking it as a challenge and just want to give an impression. We’re going to win. We practice to go to the World Cup to win”, he told reporters last week.
“Announcement was made on December 1. I knew there was only little time and it’s a matter of making the head rather than much of a skill. Had chats with Chamari (Athapaththu) and a lot of in-depth chats with the team as well on how we can perform much better than what we have ever done,” Ratnayake responded when asked by the Sunday Times on how it has been breaking the ice taking over for the first time.
“You can say it’s the debut, and it never occurred to me that I would coach the women’s team. But when it came by, I told myself why not? That is one area I have never done”.
“Prior to that I must say when Hashan (Tillakaratne) was the coach, he called me for fast bowling matters and I saw a lot of things which we could be doing differently, for their benefit of their growth. There is a lot of growth that can happen in the women’s game. As I said earlier on we saw that happening with the Aussies and all the other countries and thereby, and that gave me some sort of confidence to say why not try it with our ladies too”, Ratnayake, also to act as the coach of other departments, explained.
Sri Lankans have been drafted into Group 'A', along with hosts South Africa, against whom the World Cup opener is on Thursday (9), and Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh.
“The preparation was watching the videos of the opposition and watching their strengths and weaknesses. Couldn’t get much of it as yet, but we’re in the process of making it happen in a much bigger way and before the first match we would have everything ready”.
“Not really the warm up games but also arranging their mindset at this stage. So we talk about taking that moment, winning that moment, winning one match at a time. So you break it down and say this is how we’re going to do it”.
“They might be winning 30 matches in a row, it doesn’t bother me at all. We’ll take match by match, see what we can get, visually too with the analytical team, where we stand at the end of the day”.
Lankan ladies captained by their star player Chamari Athapaththu, will play their two warm up fixtures tomorrow against the Ireland, and on Wednesday, the eve of the tournament, versus the West Indies. Contracted for an indefinite period, the 59-year-old's contract will be renewed based on performance and results.