Two of Sri Lanka Cricket’s heavyweight decision makers, Mahela Jayawardena and Tom Moody are having their franchise teams in the money-making Indian Premier League (IPL struggle to qualify or miss out for the play-offs.
Jayawardena’s Mumbai Indians lost as many as six matches before yesterday’s match against the Delhi Capitals while Moody’s Sunrisers Hyderabad have already being knocked out as they occupy the last position in the eighth team championship with nine defeats from 11 games.
The Sunrisers are under head coach Trevor Bayliss while Moody is its Director besides holding the same post at Sri Lanka Cricket, The Sunrisers are packed with players like Kane Williamson, Jason Holder, Jason Roy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha who are streets ahead of Sri Lankan players in the T20 format.
Jayawardena’s Mumbai Indians with two games left, need to win both to be assured of a place in the four-team play-offs from which two teams qualify for the final on November 15 in Dubai.
Last month Jayawardena was enlisted by Sri Lanka Cricket as its Consultant for the three qualifying round matches of the T20 World Cup against Namibia, Ireland and the Netherlands.
He has one of the most powerful and strongest batting and bowling line-ups in the IPL that includes Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Isham Kishan, Quinton de Kock, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar, Krunal Pandya and Suriyakumar Yadav.