Colombo [Sri Lanka], March 9 (ANI): Sri Lanka has announced the appointment of Gary Kirsten as the new head coach of the national men's side.

Former South African cricketer and renowned coach Kirsten will take on the role of Sri Lanka's national men's team head coach starting April 15.

Kirsten has enjoyed a stellar coaching career. He led India to victory in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and later took South Africa to the top spot in international cricket rankings across all formats in 2013.

Most recently, he served as a consultant for Namibia at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, as per the ICC website.

This comes after former Sri Lanka head coach Sanath Jayasuriya decided to step down from his role. The announcement came soon after Sri Lanka lost to Pakistan by 5 runs in their last Super eight match of the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Before his successful coaching career, Kirsten also enjoyed a distinguished playing career for South Africa between 1993 and 2004. During that time, he scored more than 14,000 international runs, including 21 Test centuries and 13 ODI hundreds.

His primary responsibility will now be to prepare and guide Sri Lanka through the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup, which is set to be hosted by South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

Kirsten was one of South Africa's best batters from 1993 to 2004. Kirsten scored 7289 in 101 Test matches, including 21 centuries and 34 half-centuries. In ODIs, he notched up 6798 runs in 185 outings with 13 hundreds and 45 fifties.

After retiring from cricket, Kirsten turned to coaching. He became India's head coach in 2007. Under him, India won the ICC ODI World Cup 2011. Kirsten has also served as head coach of the Pakistan men's team in 2024, before resigning. (ANI)