Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning Australian coach Dav Whatmore was on Sunday appointed Baroda’s Ranji team coach as well as Director of Cricket, state body’s secretary Ajit Lele confirmed. The media had reported a couple of days back that Whatmore was set to become the Baroda coach having been in charge of Kerala team last season.
Whatmore is a noted coach, who was also in charge of India U-19 team that won the junior World Cup in Malaysia back in 2008 under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.
Baroda Cricket Association secretary Lele told : “Whatmore has been appointed as coach of the Ranji trophy team and also the Director of Cricket for a period of two years,” “In his role as Director of Cricket, the age-group coaches, U-23, U-19 and U-16 will be guided by the Australian,” Lele said.
It is leanrt that after BCA offered him the job, Whatmore gave a go-ahead from his end and communicated his decision to former Mumbai batsman Shishir Hattangadi, who is the CEO of the Association. Following a dismal season, Whatmore had parted ways with Kerala after spending three years with the southern side. In his new responsibility with BCA as Director of Cricket Whatmore will supervise the roles the age-group coaches – of Under-23, Under-19 and Under-16.
Whatmore, who has previously coached Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Pakistan apart from Sri Lanka, was till recently the head coach of Kerala’s senior men’s side. Under him, Kerala reached their first ever Ranji Trophy quarterfinal in 2017-18 – in his maiden season in charge – and followed it up with an even better performance in the following season by reaching their first ever semifinal. He left the role after three years in office after Kerala failed to qualify past the group stages last season.