Geoff Marsh named as Sri Lanka's new coach

Former Australia batsman and coach, Geoff Marsh has been appointed as the new coach of the Sri Lankan team. Geoff Marsh has filled the vacum created by Trevor Bayliss, who has left his duites after ICC 2011 World Cup. Marsh has agredd for a 2-year deal with Sri Lanka which begins on September 27 and he will be skippig the coaching duties for the Pune Warriors in IPL.

Marsh has worked as the head coach for IPL 4 debutant Pune Warriors. Marsh said that he told Pune Warriors franchise and they received it ine very positive and they were very good about it. He added that coaching an international team takes a lot of time and being able to fit both of them and it just wouldn't have happened. The franchise were very comfortable receiving in positive way, he enjoyed his year at Pune Warriors. They could see that coaching an international team is an honour, so it was all good.

Marsh represented Australia in 50 Tests and 119 ODIs, and he was also a member of the World Cup winning side in 1987. After his retirement, he became a level 3 qualified coach and was at the helm of the Australian side from 1995 to 1999. Marsh became the first and so far only cricketer to win the World Cup both as player and coach. However, he took over as coach of Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2004. He was also a national selector for the Australian team.

Marsh continues the trend of Australians coaching for Sri Lanka after Dav Whatmore, John Dyson, Tom Moody, Bayliss and Law.

Marsh had been in talks with Sri Lanka Cricket when he was in the country during Australia's recent tour. He is looking forward to the challenge of helping rebuild Sri Lanka's side after the loss of several veterans over the past two years. Marsh said that it is quite exciting to see the young talent on display during the recent Test series against Australia, when he was in the country watching his son Shaun play for Australia.

Sangakkara hopes Lanka to win in 100th Test

Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara will play his 100th test in Colombo from Friday and Sangakkara is hoping celebrate his 100th Test with a series-levelling victory over Australia in the final test match against Australia. Sri Lanka is 1 – 0 down to Australia in 3 match test series.

Sangakkara to play 100th Test, eyes on series leveling win

The left handed batsmen said that it is a great honour to have represented for country for a period of time, and also a great honour to play 100 Test matches. He also added that it is not often that a player gets that opportunity and he is very, very proud and also very privileged for the opportunity to represent his country for so long.

Sangakkara, will celebrate his 34th birthday next month, will be the fifth Sri Lankan to play a century of Tests after Muttiah Muralitharan (132), Mahela Jayawardene (121), Chaminda Vaas (111) and Sanath Jayasuriya (110). Sangakkara made his test debut against South Africa in Galle in 2000 and scored 8,572 runs in 99 Tests at an average of 55.66 with 25 – 100’s. He is the second highest run getter for Sri Lanka behind Jayawardene with 9,801 runs from 121 matches.

Sangakkara said that his goal was to compile 10,000 Test runs and score 30 centuries before he gets retired and insisted that retirement is far away from his mind.