Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne and Thisara Perera took time out of their busy training schedule on Saturday (15 June) to meet with kids from Chance to Shine and share some coaching tips while also answering questions from the children.

Children from Lewisham and Waltham Forest area met with the three players at The Oval after the team concluded training and were split into two groups, one aged 15-16 and the other six to eight years old. The two groups had a series coaching tips and encouragement given to them by the trio, however the onset of rain curtailed the coaching side of proceedings as the group had to take shelter from the rain. 

The players then answered a series of questions from the group including how they got into playing professionally and what were the best ways to maintain fitness with a heavy schedule of cricket.

At the end of the Q&A, Chandimal said: "It was a shame we didn't have a chance to play a bit more cricket with the kids today as they'd come out specially but the rain took over. It was good to be able to answer some questions and hopefully our advice will help the kids that came along today to perhaps take up a career in cricket. 

"It's important to take time out of ones schedule to do things like this and I'm please myself, Lahiru and Thisara managed to spend a little time with these kids who are part of the Chance to Shine programme."