‘I felt I could use my experience and give back to the game’ – Lasith Malinga
Former Sri Lankan cricket team captain Lasith Malinga has taken up a new role ahead of the Indian Premier League’s 2022 season. Malinga, who is the highest wicket-taker in the IPL history, only played for the Mumbai Indians during his IPL career. He was a member of the backroom staff of the Mumbai-based franchise in a season where he went unsold.
However, Malinga has now retired and recently joined the Rajasthan Royals franchise as a fast-bowling coach. He is not the first former Sri Lankan cricket team captain to join the Rajasthan Royals backroom staff. Last year, Kumar Sangakkara took up the position of RR’s Director of Cricket.
Malinga played his last IPL game in 2019, but he still holds the record for taking the highest number of wickets in the tournament. In an IPL career that began in 2009, he took 170 wickets from 122 matches for Mumbai Indians. The former Lankan pacer is now back at the IPL in a new role. He has started his job as the fast-bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals.
“It is certainly a new thing for me to get into coaching and pass on my experience to the younger players,” said Malinga. “I have played this role before with Mumbai, and now I’m delighted to be working with Rajasthan Royals. It is a new place for me, but I’m enjoying my role so far working with such a talented group of bowlers.”
He revealed it was his former Lankan teammate Kumar Sangakkara, now head coach at Royals, that first spoke to him about the move to Jaipur. “It was actually last year that Kumar asked me if I was interested,” Malinga said. “But with Covid and all the bubble restrictions, I didn’t want to stay away from my family. But this year, having also worked with the Sri Lankan team, I felt I could use my experience and give back to the game that I love, by working with this group of players.”
Malinga, who led Sri Lanka to triumph in the 2014 World T20, is impressed by the pacers at Royals. “I think we have a fantastic pace attack,” he said. “You’ve got experienced overseas players like Trent Boult and Nathan Coulter-Nile, with whom I’ve worked before. Then we’ve got genuine Indian fast bowlers in Prasidh Krishna and Navdeep Saini, who have proven themselves at the highest level, and some new faces in Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen and Kuldip Yadav.”
He said it was important to bowl according to one’s strengths rather than analysing the opposition’s weaknesses. “On the field, you only have a right hander and a left hander to prepare against, so when a bowler trains, it’s important to just train according to that — to think there are just two batters — it doesn’t matter what the name of the batter is,” he said. (Agencies)