Sri Lanka Cricket’s Fielding Coach Anton Roux was pictured recently with his newly born child firmly clasped in his hands after his wife Willemijn de Bruin gave birth to a bouncing baby boy on the 9th of January, at the popular Joseph Fraser Maternity Hospital in Colombo.
However, whilst Roux was beaming with joy, it was not the same for Sri Lankan cricketer Mahesh Theekshana who in the 2nd T20 International against Zimbabwe dropped the simplest of catches in the final over, which provided number eight batter Clive Madande to club Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews for a match winning six off the next very delivery.
Theekshana’s costly miss provided Madande the opportunity to cross over and take strike off the next delivery.
However, had Theekshana taken the catch, Luke Jongwe would have been back in the pavilion and the new batter would have to have taken strike.
During a tense and nervy situation as such, anything could have happened, as at that stage Zimbabwe needed 2 runs to win off 2 deliveries.
Butter fingers -Moments before Sri Lankan cricketer Mahesh Theekshana dropped the simplest of catches in the last over of the Zimbabwe innings.
Sri Lanka’s fielding woes have continued from their dismal run at the recently concluded ICC 50 Over World Cup, where the island nation who were placed 9th of the 10 teams that contested, dropped the most number of catches by a team at the tournament.
Anton Roux was born in the USA to South African parents.
His previous top most exposure was as the Fielding Coach of the Amstelveen-based Amsterdamsche Cricket Club (ACC) when he was recruited by SLC in 2022 to SLC when he was recruited during the time Aravinda De Silva was the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee.
Cricketer turned businessman Aravinda De Silva, who has always had a penchant for recruiting an influx of foreign coaches and backend staff, recruited Roux for an alleged monthly salary of $ 8000. It is a widely known fact that huge sums of money are made by agents and sub agents and with handsome kickbacks paid to recruiters when coaching staff for top positions as such are recruited.
Meanwhile the Minister of Sports Harin Fernando addressing the media went on to make a subtle remark, indicating that it was high time the eight ‘sudda’ or foreign coaches were relieved of their duties, as there seems to be a huge communication problem with local cricketers not being able to understand what their foreign coaches try to impart.
