Melbourne club side lands coaching coup with Jayasuriya

Sri Lankan World Cup winner Sanath Jayasuriya is set to return to cricket via a one-year head coaching stint with Melbourne club side Mulgrave next summer.

Jayasuriya, who in February 2019 was banned from all cricket for two years as the result of an ICC investigation into corruption in cricket in Sri Lanka, will link up with his former international opening partners Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga in the city's Eastern Cricket Association.

According to a Herald Sun report, Dilshan helped convince the 51-year-old veteran of 586 internationals across three formats and two decades to make the move when the pair played alongside one another as part of a Sri Lanka Legends side earlier this year.

"Dilshan opened the door for us there, and it was a fantastic opportunity that was presented to us," said Mulgrave president Malin Pullenayegam. "We just had to work on it and come to an agreement, and we have.

"I think it's a great opportunity for our young guys to know what international cricket standards are.

"That kind of exposure from a young age just elevates the standard of cricket they'll be playing."

Jayasuriya has 42 international hundreds to his name and was player of the tournament at the 1996 World Cup, which Sri Lanka won, but in the past decade he has also been engulfed in several scandals, most notably the investigation into cricket corruption in Sri Lanka in 2019.

Dilshan meanwhile played for Premier club Casey South-Melbourne last summer, while the presence of Tharanga, who only retired from international cricket in February, is another coup for the community cricket club.