The employment of a sports psychologist and tapping into the wealth of knowledge in Sri Lanka’s network of former players are among new coach Chandika Hathurusingha’s first moves towards rehabilitating Sri Lanka Cricket.

“I will get Kumar Sangakkara’s expertise and invite him to come and help us. If I don’t look for his help, then I will be wasting this opportunity I’ve been given,” Hathurusingha said to the media, following a prolonged training session with a pool of 23 players, some of whom will be travelling to Bangladesh next month.

“Not only him, but other past players such as Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan will also hopefully be working with us. We will definitely try and get as much expertise out of them. Whenever they have the time, and depending on what our needs are, we will definitely be utilising them as a resource.”

It was also revealed that one of Hathurusingha’s first acts upon meeting his new charges was to ask them to answer a questionnaire consisting of 40 questions. The questionnaire was developed by Australian Sports Psychologist Dr Phil Jauncey, who has been working with Hathurusingha for the past four years.

“I met him while I was working with [BBL franchise] Sydney Thunder. I was introduced to him by Michael Hussey, who was using him as his personal psychologist. I will be hoping to bring him down from time to time, maybe four times a year depending on the availability of our time, so that we can utilise his time productively.

“I think he will be very useful both for me and the players; in fact, he has helped me quite a bit in the past in better understanding my players, both with Bangladesh and Sydney Thunder. He has also worked with Australia for the Olympics, in baseball, rugby league, and with Cricket Australia when John Buchanan was in charge.”

Jauncey will be holding his first session with the team on the January 3 and will be with them for ten days. Depending on availability, it is also a possibility he may accompany the team on some tours.

While fixing the team’s mentality is utmost among Hathurusingha’s priorities given the team’s dismal run of form in 2017, he also sees poor training habits that need to be addressed.

-ESPNcricinfo-