What happened with Whatmore

While PCB was busy in announcing the decision to appoint Jeff Lawson as new coach of Pakistan for next two years, at least one person was left bewildered at the turn of the events within a short span of time. Dave Whatmore who was the darling of South Asian cricket just a few months back must be wondering what happened to his bid to become Pakistani coach after his name was unceremonuosly scratched out of the list of possible coaches just days before the final decision was announced at a press conference by PCB.

Whatmore has no one else to blame but himself for this snub, after he initially declined to become Pakistani coach rejecting an offer that was made to him by PCB, right after the sad death of Bob Woolmer. Everyone knew by then that Whatmore was eyeing the highly lucrative position of India's coach as Greg Chappel was slowly being pushed out by the Indian Board. He even expressed this desire during the recently concluded World Cup when he was still Bangladeshi coach, for which he received a repremand from the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

What happened afterwards was not what Whatmore could have thought. After his refusal to become Pakistani coach, he was not even selected among the final candidates for the Indian position. At that time too much water had passed under the bridge since PCB had already advertised the position and they were actively looking at all the options. Although Whatmore was still in the mix, he was not the only candidate. He was invited to be interviwed by PCB along with fellows Aussies Jeff Lawson & Richard Done. At that point he was still a leading candidate but then suddenly something happened that tilted the balance against him.

As the rumor have it, Sri Lanka's world cup winning former captain Arjuna Ranatunga had a chance meeting with Pakistan's manager-cum-coach Talat Ali in Scotland where the team had recently gone to play two one-day games. According to reliable sources in the Pakistan team Ranatunga advised Talat and the Pakistani players not to have Whatmore as a coach. According to a source, "Ranatunga during his talks with Talat and some senior players gave them a run down on Whatmore and eventually his advice was to avoid him,” he added, “Ranatunga did admit that Whatmore was coach when Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup but said the players had a big credit in this as well,” Rantunga advised them how he had problems with Whatmore when he was Sri Lankan Captain. This advice when looked at coupled with Whatmore's recent performance with Bangladeshi team pretty much convinced PCB that he was not the right man for the job.

Everyone admists that even in his stint with Sri Lanka, it was the single minded determination of then Sri Lankan captain and vice captain, Rantunga and Arvinda Desilva, not the brilliance of Whatmore that won them the world cup. For the first time PCB management which has been knows for its hasty decisions which are often wrong, took a long time to think about a decision and the outcome has been slightly positive in a sense that they at least avoided a person who has nothing to show for in his last few years as a coach of a national team.