The newly-appointed Sri Lanka women’s cricket team head coach Jamie Siddons on Tuesday urged the players to work hard to improve their skill sets to compete more meaningfully against top teams like India, Australia and England.

Sri Lanka will come across England, New Zealand and the West Indies in the Women’s T20 World Cup later this year, and Siddons wanted to see a tangible improvement.

“I just think we need to develop more skills, hit the ball hard, score more boundaries without being reckless,” he told reporters here.

This will be Siddons’ first stint with a women’s team, having had a long record of coaching men’s cricket sides, including Bangladesh from 2007-11.

His sole international appearance for Australia came in 1988 in an ODI against Pakistan.

Siddons said he was aware that Sri Lanka had fared poorly in the last two women’s World Cups, winning a single match. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Siddons said his first task would be to guide the tea during its tour to Bangladesh starting on April 20. “That is where we will look to set our style of play”, he said referring to the three-match T20 and ODI series.

Siddons said he was aware that Sri Lanka had fared poorly in the last two women’s World Cups, winning a single match.

“That is where we need to see how we can perform better,” Siddons said.

He said currently India, Australia, New Zealand and England are the top teams and Sri Lanka was looking forward to doing well against England in the opening match of the World Cup in June.

“We are focusing on the first game against England, on their home ground and home soil,” Siddons said.

Siddons took over from Ramesh Ratnayake, who led the women’s team to victory in the 2024 Asia Cup final beating India.

Published on Apr 07, 2026