Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has issued a clarification with regard to recent media reports on Mahela Jayawardena’s non-presence with the national team touring New Zealand.

The SLC states that Mahela Jayawardena, who is working for Sri Lanka Cricket as the ‘Consultant Coach,’ has not been tasked with the job of touring with the National Team.

His functions as the ‘Consultant Coach’ are to be in charge of the overall cricketing element of the national teams and to provide invaluable strategic support for the players and management teams at the High-Performance Center, the media release adds.

The media release further notes :

Accordingly, Jayawardena works on coach and player development programs, the strengthening of domestic cricketing structures, and also focuses on developing the U19, Development, and National Teams.He only travels with the national team if Sri Lanka Cricket management deems it necessary for him to do so.

We wish to state that Jayawardena, who is a highly regarded cricketing personality across the cricketing world, has been an invaluable asset to Sri Lanka Cricket since his appointment.According to Mahela, he has even declined a coaching offer from, one of the ICC member board in order to serve Sri Lanka Cricket.