Sri Lanka interim coach named

Colombo - Sri Lankan cricket authorities Monday appointed Jerome Jayaratne as interim coach of the national team for next month's West Indies tour, replacing Marvan Atapattu who quit last week.

Jayaratne, 49, had been the head of coaching at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) but will now become the interim coach of the national team with immediate effect, the SLC said in a statement.

He was appointed for the "upcoming West Indies Series in October/November 2015," the statement said.

West Indies start their tour of Sri Lanka on October 1 and are due to play two Tests, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches before leaving on November 13.

The appointment of Jayaratne came after Atapattu quit before his contract was due to expire later this month. Atapattu, 44, was the seventh Sri Lanka head coach in the past five years.

His resignation followed India's 2-1 win of a Test series in Colombo on Monday. India's last series success in Sri Lanka came under Mohammad Azharuddin's captaincy in 1993 when they won 1-0.

Atapattu took over the team as its coach in September last year after Englishman Paul Farbrace abruptly quit months earlier to become deputy coach of England.

Since 2010, Trevor Bayliss, Stuart Law, Rumesh Ratnayake, Geoff Marsh, Graham Ford have also had periods as Sri Lanka coach.

Jayaratne had not been a Test player, but has headed the coaching department of SLC for seven years.