The coach described by Kumar Sangakkara as a great loss to Sri Lankan cricket believes his “flavour” will help lift NSW to the Sheffield Shield final.
Chandika Hathurusinghe was elevated from the assistant role to head coach until the end of the season on Wednesday when Anthony Stuart was sacked by the board.
After Stuart signed a two-season contract in the middle of last year, the Blues won just one Sheffield Shield match in 2011-12 and finished third in the one-day cup.
Young batsmen Usman Khawaja and Phil Hughes departed NSW earlier this year and, despite the Blues making a decent start to the current season, Stuart’s record wasn’t deemed up to scratch given the talent in the squad.
Hathurusinghe, who scored 1274 runs in 26 Test matches for Sri Lanka from 1991-’99, believes he can create the right environment for the Blues to prosper.
“As a head coach, I’ll probably bring more flavour,” he said on Thursday.
“It’s my way of doing things. I like a lot of freedom of expression in the middle for the players to do well.
“If we can get the right information on how we want to play and about the opposition, then that will help us perform in the middle.
“Whether that works or not, we’ll know at the end of the season.”
The Blues sit in fourth place on the Sheffield Shield table – just six points behind the leaders – but have won just one of their four one-day cup clashes to sit equal-last.
The 44-year-old Hathurusinghe believes NSW can once again become the standard bearers in Australian domestic cricket if the players make a good transition from the Big Bash Twenty20 tournament back to the Shield.
“If we win the next game, we are at the top,” he said.
“We have a very good chance. If we play to our potential, we can make the final.
“All we have to do is prepare as well as we can.
“I will try to take the pressure off them so they can do their best in the middle.”
Hathurusinghe ended his playing career in 2005 and coached the Sri Lanka A side soon after before being appointed assistant of the national team under ex-NSW mentor Trevor Bayliss from 2009-’10.
But while he was the Sri Lankan coach-in-waiting, Hathurusinghe fell out with the country’s administration and signed to become Stuart’s assistant in August 2011.
At the time, Sri Lanka’s second-highest Test run-scorer bemoaned his move to Sydney.
“He has been a great loss to us,” said Sangakkara.
“He made an amazing contribution to our cricket. He is an extremely capable coach.”
Hathurusinghe is keen to stay on in his new role for next season, but knows all too well that results are required over the next four months.
“It all depends on how I perform,” he said.
“(But) if everything goes well, absolutely I’m keen to do the job.”