By Rex Fernando Special correspondent, Colombo

Dyson chats to Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara

When the Sri Lankan cricket board hunted around for a suitable successor for Dav Whatmore as coach not many candidates were interested.

Big names like John Bracewell, Greg Chappell, Steve Rixon and Bob Woolmer all declined the offer. The man who finally signed on the dotted line was John Dyson.

The former Australian batsman has been in the job for nearly three months and says he has thoroughly enjoyed the stint.

But so far he has not yet had a chance to put his ideas into practice.

His first challenge comes when the island nation host England over three Tests and three one-day internationals between now and Christmas.

Since taking over your new job, how have you progressed as Sri Lanka's cricket coach?

Well we've been practising hard. In the last month or so, we've worked hard to make sure the boys are in the right frame and in good physical shape.

The practice facilities made available for us have been excellent.

I have been keeping an eye on the performances of the top players in the domestic competition and it has to be said they've been excellent too.

The only area for concern is there are few injury worries. Apart from that, things have been fine.

You've been targeting the series against England?

With recent retirements there seems to be a void in experience Dyson on England

The series that is coming against England is going to be vital for us. Many people seem to be feeling that the side hasn't fared all that well in the last 12 months or so.

So the boys have lot of things to prove. If you assess their last two series, I thought they played extremely well.

There were a few brilliant individual performances and with a bit more luck the results could have been different.

We also want those individual performances to gel together to achieve better results.

You played quite a bit against England too as a player.

Yes I did. I remember very well playing against the English. The series in England in 1981 is one that I would rather forget.

Then I also played in the next series when we hosted them back in Australia to regain The Ashes.

How do you assess the English side?

It's not going to be an easy one. The English are great competitors and have got some excellent players too.

With recent retirements, there seems to be a void in experience and hopefully we can exploit them.

On paper we have a slight advantage as far as experience is concerned and then we've got the advantages of home conditions.

But then we have got to deliver the goods. England played well against South Africa this summer.

Their Test squad seems to be a very good one too, but probably in the shorter version of the game experience puts us ahead I feel.