Jerome Jayaratne, the former seam-bowling allrounder, has been appointed the chief operating officer of Sri Lanka Cricket, the board announced through a release on Saturday. Jayaratne will immediately take over in his new role, in which he will supervise several SLC divisions including human resources, marketing, media and IT.
Jayaratne is a veteran in cricket administration, having coached and served in varying capacities for over a decade. His first role with SLC was in 2000, and in 2008, he was appointed the board’s head of coaching. Jayaratne had also worked with the ICC, on their global development management team in 2001.
In September 2015, following Marvan Atapattu’s resignation, Jayaratne was appointed interim head coach of the Sri Lankan national team. His stint included the home series against West Indies and the tour to New Zealand in December-January. His former long-term job as head of coaching has effectively been dissolved after Simon Willis was appointed high performance manager.
Jayaratne is also an accomplished player, having represented the Sri Lanka under-19, with whom he toured Australia in 1984, and Under-23 teams. He ended his first-class career with 391 runs from 22 matches to alongside 34 wickets. He played only three List A games in which he scored 27 runs and took a solitary wicket.
