Former Sri Lanka women’s cricket captain Shashikala Siriwardene has embarked on a new chapter in her cricketing career, taking up a full-time coaching role with Plenty Valley Cricket Club in Victoria, Australia. Siriwardene is coaching the club’s women’s teams during the 2026-27 season, having previously served as a captain-coach before deciding to focus exclusively on coaching. Speaking to Cricket Australia’s official website, she said she was enjoying the opportunity to help young players develop their skills while building her experience as a coach. The former all-rounder retired from international cricket following the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. She subsequently obtained her Level 2 coaching qualification and worked with Sri Lanka’s Under-19 women’s team ahead of the inaugural ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup. She later moved to Australia to further develop her coaching career, initially joining Wynnum-Manly in Brisbane as a player and assistant coach. She moved to Melbourne’s Box Hill Cricket Club in 2024 before joining Plenty Valley in 2025 as captain-coach. Siriwardene said her current role involved balancing the development of young players with the team’s ambition to achieve results and establish a strong team culture. Making her international debut in 2003, Siriwardene became one of Sri Lanka’s most accomplished women’s cricketers. She scored 2,029 runs and took 124 wickets in women’s One-Day Internationals, making her the only Sri Lankan cricketer to surpass 1,000 runs and claim 100 wickets in the format. Reflecting on the growth of women’s cricket, she said the sport had expanded considerably since her early playing days, with improved structures and more opportunities for former players to remain involved in the game. Siriwardene said she hoped to continue coaching and would eventually like to coach at state level in Australia or lead Sri Lanka’s national team. For now, she said she was focused on learning, helping players improve and contributing to the development of women’s cricket. (Newswire) The post Former Sri Lanka captain Shashikala Siriwardene takes up coaching role in Australia appeared first on Newswire.
