Pubudu Dassanayake was the man behind Nepali cricket team’s tremendous success since 2011. During his four-year stay, the Sri Lanka-born Canadian coach guided Nepal to World Twenty20 and also bagged a lot of accolades with the national team. Dassanayake has resigned from his job and is returning to his country this week. In this context, Mahesh Acharya of The Himalayan Times had a rendezvous with Dassanayke. Excerpts:
What brought you to Nepal when you accepted the job? In 2011 World Cup in India, I was with the Canadian team. I got an email from the then Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) President Binaya Raj Pandey asking me if I was interested to join Nepal. I even didn’t have plans to leave Canada then. But after going through the Nepali team and whole country structure, I thought this is the place to go thinking that I can bring some changes take the team forward. So I decided to join Nepal.
