Dubai: Renowned coach Dav Whatmore feels that the challenge for every country is to remain at the top of world cricket ranking.
Speaking to Gulf News, Whatmore, who is conducting a three-day coaching clinic at the Desert Cubs Cricket Academy, said: “The challenge for any country is to remain at No. 1 or 2 in all formats. Even kings like Australia become No. 1 and then they drop down and come up again. So it is a chase of trying to remain on top but sadly teams suffer from retirements and injuries and they lose matches and go down to pick up again.”
Whatmore, who coached Sri Lanka to World Cup success in 1996, feels the Sri Lanka tour to India will be a great challenge.
“Sri Lanka is at the moment going through a tough time but I am sure they will come out of it and pick up points. The India tour will be a good challenge for them,” he said.
Whatmore, known for his magic touch in grooming underdogs into champions, is now the head coach of the Kerala Ranji Trophy team. “I am very comfortable with the position of head coach of Kerala team,” he said.
“The boys have been terrific. We had our challenges with some injuries. We had lot of other challenges but the boys despite all these have done really well and shown a real attitude to win matches and it is reflected in the score line so far.”
Whatmore is also associated with the Whatmore Centre for Cricket at the Centre for Sports Science (CSS) in Chennai which provides training through the most modern scientific equipment. “It is a great partnership between the CSS and Whatmore Centre for Cricket as well as the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA),” he said.
“It is a natural sort of marriage with S Ramesh (former Kerala captain) as game development officer of KCA who has been part of CSS for a few years.”
Whatmore believes that scientific methods of analysing the game through videos and other equipment is a must. “Everyone is looking for an edge and to get an edge you must have good awareness,” he said.
“It is a combination of many things that makes a cricketer successful. You need mental strength and attitude when you play internationally. Lot of other things like discipline in training, fitness and assistance from support coaches are also necessary. Everyone has to be at the top of their game.”
Whatmore also feels that there is a lot of potential talent in the UAE. “Youngsters here need good coaching, they need to improve their skills and play as many games as they can,” he said. “Then the real good one can think about taking their cricket further, whether they go back to India or Pakistan or wherever or remain here and compete with associate countries.
Whatmore also warned about excess of limited-over cricket. “Too much of shorter version cricket is not ideal,” he admitted.
“If you want to learn skills, it is better to have a longer game than 20 overs. The challenge for coaches and cricketers is to understand the system they are in and get the best out of the situations. You need to manage it as best you can.”
