Whatmore Once More

Dav Whatmore will arrive in the island shortly to take charge as Head Coach of Colombo Kings franchise.

Sri Lanka’s leading cricketers like Angelo Mathews and Isuru Udana will have an opportunity to work with World Cup winning cricket coach Dav Whatmore who will feature in the Lanka Premier League tournament taking charge of Colombo Kings franchise. The 66-year-old is expected to arrive in Colombo shortly to go through his quarantine and once that is complete he will join the players to start training for the highly anticipated tournament.

Whatmore is one of the most respected cricket coaches in the world having been with international teams for over 25 years now.

Whatmore was the coach of Australian state side Victoria when Sri Lanka Cricket hired him and after guiding them to World Cup glory, the former Australia batsman joined English county Lancashire.

Then in 1999, on the insistence of then SLC Secretary S. Skandakumar, Whatmore returned for a second stint. Sri Lanka tasted success immediately with a young side beating Steve Waugh’s World Champion Australian side. Sri Lanka also went onto win a Test match against the Aussies in Whatmore’s first assignment.

Whatmore’s second stint lasted for four years and he is Sri Lanka’s most successful cricket coach.

He then had stints with the Bangladesh and Pakistan cricket teams and had a stint with India’s National Cricket Academy which produced some of their current stars.

Whatmore also has had coaching stints with Zimbabwe, IPL franchises, English counties and even S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia.

Colombo’s players, particularly the young ones will benefit immensely from Whatmore’s vast knowledge.

Apart from Colombo Kings, the other LPL franchises are Dambulla Hawks, Galle Gladiators, Jaffna Stallions and Kandy Tuskers. The Stallions captained by Thisara Perera have already resumed their residential camp in Kandy.

The Tuskers captained by Kusal Janith Perera and coached by Hashan Tillakaratne will resume their training shortly in Hambantota.

Sri Lanka Cricket has outsourced the event to a Dubai based company – IPG. The event was postponed on several occasions due to the outbreak of the pandemic but after health authorities gave clearance it will get underway this month.

SLC is expected to make a net profit of US$ two million a year running up to ten million over a five year period.