Chennai coaching stint beckons Whatmore

The Sri Lankan born Aussie has had coaching stints in almost every cricket nation in Asia but none better than the one in Sri Lanka when he guided them to their first major ICC World Cup title in 1996. In twenty years, he has had his ups and downs and none worse than his last stop in Zimbabwe. 

With India, he worked as the director of BCCI National Cricket Academy for two years. He was also there when Virat Kohli was part of the team that won the Junior World Cup. He has high regards for the new Indian captain and he reckons the best change that happened to him over the years was when he started to lose his weight. 

“After that his cricket was totally different,” said Whatmore. The Aussie felt his team, due to tour India in February-March would have been better off if they had trained at the SRU academy instead of going all the way to Dubai ahead of the gruelling four-Test series.   

Whatmore admitted there was a big shift in the Aussie plan from the past when they won a series here with Shane Warne as the only spinner to the recent teams that were packed with three and four spinners. “I know they are good players of spin when they play there (in Australia) but in India, you need different technique to handle the spinners,” he said. 

Whatmore, who has played just eight Tests and one ODI for Australia, said Pakistan always posed a different challenge to both the coach and captain. “It is not even like India. Under the circumstance Misbah has done well,” he said. On his SRU assignment, the Aussie said the academy will have world class facilities in cricket. “Right now, there are nine net wickets and we have excellent back-up programmes for recovery, training and other scientific methods,” he said. 

The full complement of facilities in the academy would be open in April, said S Ramesh, general manager (Admin), himself a former cricketer (Kerala captain) and match referee. “The idea is to develop this into an International Cricket Academy of Excellence, more like the academy of academies,” said Ramesh.

Whatmore said the centre would have a panel of coaches (M Sanjay of TN already in) and sports scientists and rehabilitation experts. Asked whether the centre would be available to the BCCI for its programmes, he said they had good relations with the board. “

We are open to all the world. We are not in competition with anyone,” said the Aussie. The centre of excellence will also have rowing and shooting also under its wings and will conduct high-power camps during summer.