Yardley sacked, Roy Dias takes over

The changes came weeks after Sri Lanka returned from a disastrous tour of South Africa, during which top players suddenly lost form. The local media attributed the failure to indiscipline in the team and senior players were accused of womanising and partying late into the night on match eve.

In replacing Yardley, the Board may have also been responding to mounting publiccriticism that Sri Lanka was paying "millions" to a foreigner for "nothing" and that a local cricketer may be able to produce results for less.

While Dias has been appointed "head-coach", the Board also plans to hire the services of "specialist" coaches from time to time. In this context, Yardley was being retained to train spinners for Sri Lanka, Sumathipala said.

Explaining the replacement of Mendis, the chairman said the manager had requested to be relieved for two months for personal reasons and therefore, the temporary appointment of Fernando.

Cricket Board sources however said Mendis was "permanently" on the way out. It is learnt that the manager was asked to resign by the Board and that Sumathipala’s elaborate explanation may have been worked out as a face-saving formula at the intervention of his friend and captain Arjuna Ranatunga.

Sources said that Mendis’ failure to prevent the team from running wild in South Africa was a handy excuse to axe the manager, whom chairman Sumathipala wanted outof the way in order to clip Ranatunga’s wings. The manager was perceived as adding to the clout of the captain, who has two brothers, Dhammika and Prasanna, on the board.

PTI ADDS: The Sri Lankan Board has given a "golden handshake" to Yardley, virtually blaming him for the recent disastrous run of the team during its South African tour.

Sri Lanka drew a blank in its two Test matches and triangular One-Day International series involving South Africa and Pakistan and the Board has blamed the defeat on Yardley asking him to go, sources in the Board said today.

Insiders in the Board said Yardley refused to own responsibility for the failures and instead wanted a total revamp of the team, which included dropping of senior players.

This was not acceptable to the Board and the selectors insisted on his ouster. Yardley has officially declared "as resigned" after the Board worked out a settlement with him, they said.

Sumathipala said the new manager’s post will come up for review at the end of SriLanka’s home commitments against New Zealand and India and the appointment of Dias will be for a period of one year, which also covers the World Cup in England in May-June 1999.

Dias said he was surprised at his appointment to coach the national side, but added he accepted the challenge. "It’s a great honour and I am very proud. I have confidence and with my qualifications I can handle it," said Dias.

Dias quit Test cricket in 1987 at 33 and later became a professional coach, organising his own clinic that was patronised mostly by enthusiastic school boys hoping to make the grade in Colombo.

He said his first priority is to raise the downward trend of the team’s fielding, which contributed to the unfavourable results on the South African tour.

The coming weeks would be crucial for the team as it was scheduled to play a Test series against New Zealand and triangular one-day series, celebrating the golden jubilee of their country’s Independence. India is the third team in the tournament.

Meanwhile,the Board officials said Sri Lanka will also host an Asian Cricket Council Conference here this month which would be attended by its 15 members. The conference is to propose a regional plan for promotion of cricket in Asia.