Hathurusingha’s first assignment against Bangladesh next year!

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are on the verge of signing former Test cricketer Chandika Hathurusingha as the Head Coach of the Sri Lankan team, reports Cricbuzz.

The 49-year-old will arrive in Colombo next week to meet officials and he is expected to take over after the ongoing series in India.

"We are happy that everything is working out well. He will arrive in Colombo next week and we can take things forward once he comes," said a prominent SLC official.

"The Ex-Co approved his engagement and we have now sent the draft of the contract to his lawyers. We are almost through and we are delighted," the official added.

In October, Hathurusingha forwarded his resignation to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to step down as the head coach of Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka are without a head coach since Graham Ford quit in June. SLC had shortlisted former Australian cricketers Geoff Marsh and Jason Gillespie for the role, but once Hathurusingha became available, the board went back to their former 'A' team coach.

Ironically, Hathurusingha's first assignment as Sri Lanka head coach will be against Bangladesh next year.

Hathurusingha rose to prominence as a coach in 2002 when he guided an unfancied Moors SC team to a first-class title win as player cum coach. He had a brief spell as coach of UAE before coming down to Colombo to take over Sri Lanka's 'A' team.

Several current players like Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews and Suranga Lakmal came through the 'A' team during his time as the coach. On a tour to South Africa in 2009, Sri Lanka 'A' lost a closely contested three-match unofficial Test series 1-0 before going onto win the one-day leg 4-1.

That prompted then Test captain Kumar Sangakkara to request his services for the senior side.

Having joined the senior team, Hathurusingha was understudy to head coach Trevor Bayliss but a disagreement with the hierarchy of the board forced him to migrate to Australia.

Having made Sydney his new home, Hathurusingha worked with New South Wales before being hired by Bangladesh in 2014.

Under his charge, Bangladesh went on to reach the quarter-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2015 and reached the semi-finals of Champions Trophy too, this year.

In between, Bangladesh also recorded Test wins over England, Australia and Sri Lanka while winning ODI series against South Africa, India and Pakistan.

Former middle-order batsman Thilan Samaraweera, who worked alongside him as batting consultant in Bangladesh, joined the Sri Lankan team just ahead of the current tour of India.