Sri Lanka set to interview Bayliss

Trevor Bayliss has expressed his interest in a move to Sri Lanka © Getty Images

Trevor Bayliss will be interviewed by Sri Lanka next week as a potential replacement for Tom Moody as the country's head coach. Bayliss is competing with at least one other Australian, Terry Oliver, who is in charge of the Queensland team and has already met with Sri Lankan officials.

Bayliss, the coach of New South Wales since 2004-05, told The Sydney Morning Herald he was due to be interviewed in Colombo on June 14. The paper reported Bayliss was likely to take the role if it was offered, although he recently rejected overtures from Bangladesh and Australia's Centre of Excellence.

"It's a job with an international team, and one of the better international teams, so you'd be nuts not to hear them out," Bayliss said. "And if something was offered, you'd be silly to knock it back. I spoke to Tom [Moody] about a week ago just to find out what I can expect in the interview. So now it's just a case of going over and seeing what they have to say."

Bayliss played 58 games as a middle-order batsman for New South Wales during the 1980s and '90s. He was the state's Second XI mentor before taking over from Steve Rixon in the senior job. He guided the Blues to the Pura Cup title in his first season at the helm.

Dave Gilbert, the chief executive of Cricket New South Wales, said the state would have no problems with Bayliss leaving to take on an international position. "We won't be standing in the way of Trevor," Gilbert told the paper. "If he wants to prove himself on the international stage, we will stand aside.

"We don't want to lose him, but we realise he is very ambitious, and in the long term he wants to coach Australia. Coaching another international side would be a big step towards that goal. Just look at the way it catapulted Tom Moody to the upper echelons of world cricket."