Chamari Athapaththu's Future with Sri Lanka Women's Cricket
Chamari Athapaththu is not done yet. Not even close.
That is the clear message from Sri Lanka’s new head coach Jamie Siddons, who has moved quickly to silence any whispers of an imminent farewell for the captain and cornerstone of the women’s side.
“She is keen to play for a lot longer than one or two more years,” Siddons said, after early conversations with the 36-year-old. In her 16th year of international cricket, Athapaththu remains the axis around which Sri Lanka turn, and by all accounts she has been energised rather than drained by the team’s new tactical direction.
For months, her future has hovered over the team. The 2025 ODI World Cup in India was widely viewed as a natural breakpoint, a possible final chapter for one of Sri Lanka’s greats. Siddons’ words push that horizon further away. The suggestion is clear: Athapaththu’s story is likely to run into the next T20 cycle.
The numbers back up the optimism. Athapaththu has led Sri Lanka to recent ODI and T20I series wins over West Indies, and Siddons says her training-ground form has been just as ruthless as her work under lights. “In the last two practice matches, she’s dominated the games. She can keep going for a lot longer,” he said.
For Sri Lanka, the timing could hardly be more important. The Women’s T20 World Cup in England looms in June, and they go into it with a captain who is not easing toward the exit but attacking the next phase of her career.
Athapaththu at the centre, future in mind
Athapaththu’s presence does more than stabilise a batting order. It buys time. Time to plan, time to develop, time to ensure that when she eventually walks away, the team does not fall into a leadership void.
Siddons is under no illusions about that responsibility.
“That's exactly why I'm here, I think,” he said when asked about life after Athapaththu. His brief is not just to win now, but to build what comes next. “To put together some plans where we can bring players in, teach them how the game is played.”
He has already identified pieces for that future. Two young fast bowlers have caught his eye, and he did not hold back on their potential. He described them as “as good as anyone going around” and insisted “they’ll be up for the fight.” For a team long reliant on spin and on Athapaththu’s brilliance with the bat, that kind of pace promise hints at a different, more rounded Sri Lanka.
No more ‘playing it safe’
If Athapaththu’s commitment is the emotional anchor, Siddons’ tactical manifesto is the jolt of electricity.
In his first major address since taking over on March 16, the Australian laid down a blunt mandate: if Sri Lanka want to beat the best, conservatism has to go. The era of simply surviving against elite opposition is over.
He draws on deep experience. Siddons has worked with the Australian men’s team and been part of several World Cup campaigns. He has also seen up close what world-class women’s T20 cricket looks like, having worked with players such as Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr. He knows the tempo, the explosiveness, the standard.
That knowledge is shaping a radical shift in batting philosophy.
“We win in singles and twos, but we don't score more boundaries than the opposition, and that's why we lose against the best teams,” he said. It is a brutally honest diagnosis. Sri Lanka can scrap. They can accumulate. But when the game turns into a shootout, they too often run out of firepower.
“We can't be safe. Our aim is to hit the ball harder and find the gaps. We have the hitters at the top, but the middle overs are where we must improve.”
That middle-overs stagnation has haunted Sri Lanka for years. Starts get wasted, platforms crumble, and totals stall 20 or 30 runs short of what the pitch demands. Siddons wants that phase to become a launchpad, not a holding pattern.
Tricks with the ball, steel in the field
The recalibration is not confined to batting.
“I think from the bowling perspective, we need to have some tricks,” Siddons said. “We can't just turn up and bowl offspin, we need to have some different types of balls that we can bowl.”
It is a direct challenge to his attack. Predictability has made Sri Lanka easy to line up. That must change. Every fast bowler, Siddons insists, needs multiple slower balls, variations they can trust under pressure. The goal is simple: deny rhythm, deny boundaries.
“The best teams in the world hit a lot of boundaries, we need to minimise those boundaries.” It is a neat inversion of his batting mantra. Hit more fours than the opposition; concede fewer. In T20 cricket, that gap often decides everything.
Fielding, too, sits at the heart of his plan, especially with “flat wickets” expected in England. If the ball will skid on, Sri Lanka cannot afford to leak runs in the deep. Siddons likes what he has seen from his outfielders’ arms, and for those less naturally gifted, he talks of clear, role-specific positioning. No weak link can be left exposed.
Bangladesh first, England ahead
Before the bright lights of a World Cup, there is the grind of a tour. Sri Lanka head to Bangladesh for three ODIs and three T20Is, a crucial test bed for Siddons’ ideas.
This is where the new batting intent must surface. This is where the slower balls and fielding patterns will be trialled, stretched, and, if necessary, ripped up and rewritten. There is no hiding from the schedule that follows.
At the T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka open against hosts England, a daunting assignment in conditions that should suit the home side’s power game. New Zealand and West Indies follow. There are no soft landings there, no time to grow into the tournament.
Siddons knows that gap in pedigree. His answer is mindset.
“The girls have the talent; they just need the mindset. They are human beings, they can play just as good cricket as an Amelia Kerr. My job is to free them up, upskill them, and push them to be a bit braver.”
He admits one of his early hurdles is a language barrier, but leans on his assistant coaches to make sure his messages cut through. The ideas are not complicated. They are demanding, but clear: attack more, fear less, trust your game.
At the centre of it all stands Chamari Athapaththu, still Sri Lanka’s match-winner, still their lodestar. She is not preparing a farewell tour. She is preparing for another fight.
If Siddons can turn his blueprint into habit while Athapaththu is still in full stride, Sri Lanka’s next era might not begin after she retires. It might begin with her leading the charge.
