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Sri Lanka suffered a big blow before the start of their second Test against Pakistan, when their Australian coach Tom Moody had to fly off to England after the death of his father-in-law.

The Sri Lankan board confirmed that Moody’s father-in-law had expired and he had to rush back home and he would not be available to supervise the entire second Test against Pakistan from Monday (tomorrow).

Assistant coach Trevor Penny, who played 17 years for Warwickshire, is a Zimbabwean and retired last year to take up the assignment with the Sri Lankan cricket board on the insistence of Moody.

The interesting thing about Penny, a middle order batsman, is that he was one of the substitute fielders used by England coach Duncan Fletcher in the Ashes series last year, a move that came in for criticism from Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

Penny’s main job with the Sri Lankan team has been to help improve their fielding as he himself was a brilliant fielder. He is hoping to fine tune the Sri Lankans into one of the best fielding sides in the 2007 World Cup.

Source: The News

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