SLC "showed interest" in Dav Whatmore by Bipin Dani

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Player:

DF Whatmore

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DateLine: 10th June 2016

 

Mumbai, June 10 : Dav Whatmore retired from professional cricket in 1988/89 to pursue a career in coaching. He coached Sri Lanka in two separate spells, during the first of which his team won the 1996 Cricket World Cup. He missed the third opportunity, though not with the national team, but being with the junior players in Sri Lanka.

 

According to the two different sources in Sri Lanka, the 63-year-old Whatmore was again "approached" earlier this year, precisely before the discussions started with Simon Willis, who has now already accepted the position as High Performance manager.

 

"Dav Whatmore was approached for coaching our "A" team and other upcoming players in this country. We had aimed at him to spot the talent in this country. Though the discussions with Whatmore did not last beyond primary stage, and could not materialize because Whatmore wanted a 3-month break for the Indian Premier League (IPL)", one of the sources, who was aware about Jayantha Dharmadasa (handling international portfolio for Sri Lanka Cricket) task of approaching Whatmore, said exclusively.

 

"Whatmore was hoping to be associated with one of the IPL teams but sadly, he could not be there and now has also lost the job with the Zimbabwe", another source, speaking exclusively from Colombo, put it.

 

"Whatmore is indeed a very good coach and could have been useful in Sri Lanka", the source further added.

 

Whatmore has also experience of coaching national teams of Bangladesh and Pakistan and Indian players (Kolkata team in IPL and National Cricket Academy).

 

In the meantime, Simon Willis, the new man on job will move into an apartment by the end of this month. This was confirmed by Thilanga Sumathipala, the president of the SLC board. "At present he is staying in a hotel but we hope to shift him to an apartment possibly by this month end", he said from London.

 

Perhaps, Willis may get at least a two-bed room apartment in Colombo

 

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2016 Bipin Dani)