Former Australian coach Justin Langer could have a new job sooner than anyone would have imagined, with Sri Lanka reportedly keen on acquiring his services.
England became the first nation to publically confirm interest in the mentor, but now Sri Lanka have become the second nation to express interest in Langer.
The sub-continent nation are currently in the process of appointing a new full time coach following the exit of Mickey Arthur.
Rumesh Ratnayake is currently serving as an interim coach, however, the hard-nosed style of Langer could be what Sri Lanka need to turn them into a force on the global cricketing stage once again.
Langer has expressed his desire to be a "career coach" while his manager recently said there has been "a lot of interest".
Speaking to Code Sports, Sri Lankan cricket technical advisory committee member and former captain Aravinda De Silva said Sri Lanka would "like to have a chat" to Langer.
“We are in the process of looking for a national coach,” de Silva said from Colombo on Monday.
“If [Langer is] available we would like to have a chat to him, to see his interest levels.
“It [would] be something we’d be happy to look at, for sure.
“We’ve had long hours of interviewing so many candidates. Naveed Nawaz, who was with the Bangladesh under-19 team, and has been the under-19 coach previously here, I think we’ve identified him as one very good individual.”
He said however the at the team need a "father figure."
“You need to understand the players’ mindset. We don’t have any senior players such as the ones we’ve had in the past, Mahela (Jayawardene), Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara), Sanath (Jayasuriya), these kind of players. You need to basically have someone who understands and becomes a father figure and also to mitigate the language barrier," he said.
“That’s been one of the major issues. We need to have someone who gets the right message across and understands our culture as well. These are things that we have been focusing on in finding the right candidate.”
Langer has reportedly also been approached to be part of the commentary team for Australia's upcoming tour of Pakistan.
