Pakistani Gul to be Sri Lanka head coach
Sri Lanka Squash (SLS) is to be boosted by the signing of a former Pakistani national coach Rehman Gul, due to join and become country’s national coach with effect from next week, Vice President of SLS Eranda Geeganage told the Sunday Times exclusively yesterday.
Gul, 49, armed with a wealth of coaching exposure, including having coached in Asia and in most parts of the western world, will have his coaching stint till this December, after the Commonwealth Games. His services would be reviewed and renewed based on the performance.
His earnings, an estimated Rs. 750,000 per month, will be paid by the Sports Ministry through the National Sports Council. SLS is presently having two local coaches – Naduni Gunawardena for women and Gihan Suwaris for men – and these two will work under the charge of Gul, returning for a second stint after little more than a decade.
Geeganage, also the chairman of SLS tournament committee, told the experienced Gul will be filling in the void created by the local resource personnel, and that prompted SLS to filter and finalise the Pakistani, of the pool of seven to eight candidates ranging from Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Egypt.
During the selections, a highly achieved Egyptian was also sought. However, due to financial constraints, administrative delays and his own clash of commitments, the negotiations ended only a futile note. Geeganage explained that most of the Lankan coaches are qualified, but they lack the technical aspect, where other Asian and world coaches have scored.
“Our coaches are not adequately exposed to the international arena,” he said
Two of the services of Gul would also be to ‘train the trainer’, as the local duo, though possessing World Squad Federation Level 2 coaching qualification, are still short of foreign experience and are very young. However, though, they have had the backing and recommendation even from World Squad Federation director and are national players and the cream of the crop of the existing local lot.
Secondly, Gunawardena and Suwaris are presently handling the High Performance National Squad with around a dozen of players. After Gul’s arrival, the trials will be worked off for the Asian and Commonwealth Games next month, from which, a squash team of 12 would be picked for these major assignments.
The decision to settle with Gul was reached last month, but since he had to relinquish his duties from his own squash federation at home, his joining had spilled into the New Year.