By Srian Obeyesekere

Thilina Kandamby, a former Sri Lanka cricketer who graduated skippering the Sri Lanka Under-19 XI side on tour of Australia winning the Man-of-the-Series award with some sterling contributions, is the Head Coach of the Jaffna Stallions. A sound batsman who emerged from Ananda College who hit five half-centuries for Sri Lanka A XI on tour of India, Kandamby, who holds the highest individual score of 144 in the traditional Ananda-Nalanda match in 1999, carries the guiding coaching experience to guide the destinies of Jaffna Stallions at the forthcoming Lanka Premier Leageue.

He will be an asset to the side’s skipper Thisara Perera who will lead quite a formidable outfit whose overseas recruits are Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik and Usman Shinwari, England’s Tom Moores, and South Africa’s Kyle Abbott and Duanne Olivier. The franchise has also announced the signing of Johnson Charles – a member of the West Indies’ T20 World Cup winning teams in 2012 and 2016.

It will be quite an assortment of foreign and local players the 38-year old head coach will guide and direct of a franchise that also includes national caps Avishka Fernando, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Minod Bhanuka, Suranga Lakmal, Binura Fernando and Prabath Jayasuriya while the mega tournament will also be an opportunity for oungsters Nuwanidu Fernando, Charith Asalanka and Mahesh Theekshana to impress at the LPL in forging their careers to the mainstream national team.