Former Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga will head a high-profile cricket committee to pick the national team's new coach, it was announced here on Saturday. Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee said a nine-member panel would hold discussions early next week with former Australian Test player Tom Moody, tipped to take over as the country's next coach. Moody emerged a strong contender for the job after India on Friday hired former Australian Test skipper Greg Chappell till the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
"It was always going to be a race between Moody and Chappell but after India named Chappell, we are likely to go with Moody," Jayantha Dharmadasa, chairman of the Interim Committee, said on Friday.
The committee to select the new coach includes seven former Sri Lankan captains - Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama, Ranjan Madugalle, Duleep Mendis, Bandula Warnapura, Michael Tissera and Anura Tennekoon. Former Test batsman Sidat Wettimuny and paceman Graeme Labrooy are other members of the panel.
Sri Lanka's next international assignment is a two-Test home series against the West Indies in July. India will join the two teams the following month for a triangular one-day series.