Familiarity breeds respect for Whatmore

As India and Zimbabwe meet in a last and somewhat irrelevant group game on Saturday, Dav Whatmore's presence in the Zimbabwe dressing room is a doleful reminder of some glum hours in India's World Cup history. In his colourful and chequered journey as a travelling cricket coach, Whatmore found himself in the opposition change rooms in two generation-spanning dark days of India's World Cup history. In 1996, as one of the three World Cup hosts, India were beaten by only two teams in the group stage of the tournament - Australia in Mumbai and Sri Lanka in Delhi - before they blitzed into the semi-final where they were once again stopped by eventual champions Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in a game that had to be abandoned due to crowd trouble.

Whatmore's presence as bogeyman had perhaps its most devastating impact more than ten years later when he coached Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup and witnessed his team's five-wicket victory over India in a group game in Port of Spain. That game sent India home early and MS Dhoni later stated it was the worst period of his cricket career.

Today Whatmore, greyer, portlier but still an eastern sagely presence, was asked about his two records against India in the World Cup and replied in his familiar growl-of-a-voice. His role as support staff in Kolkata, 1996 and Port of Spain was, he said, "a statement of fact" but added: "That's about it, you know." What has obviously stung him deeper is the fact that in Auckland 2015, "everything is different." He also reminded journalists that "this will be the first World Cup where I am not into the second round." His history of success as a World Cup coach had meant nothing following Zimbabwe's disappointment in this World Cup.

The India side of today he said were different from the side he had run into in the past. At the moment they had "a big plus point" - their bowlers.

"It is a team that is bowling the opposition out regularly - their batting has never been in question, but what was needed was a good strong bowling performance and they have done that."

Whatmore's other connection with India covers a brief period when he coached Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the Under-19 team during a successful junior World Cup campaign in 2008. He spoke of his time with the young Indians and how pleasing it was to see their progress: "It wasn't difficult to see that they had the potential to go on and to see that they have realised that potential, but there's still more to do."

It was Whatmore who witnessed the first signs of Kohli as an incendiary captain and he laughed at the memory. "Well, he's confident and he was confident also as an under-19 captain. There have been plenty of examples of confident young players who don't follow up and follow through and he certainly has."

Whatmore has spent many years in India in several capacities - as director of operations at the National Cricket Academy in October 2007, a role which led him to coach the junior India team in the 2008 World Cup. He left the NCA to serve as coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL in November 2009 until July 2011. During this period, in which he spent many months in India, Whatmore became familiar, not merely with upcoming Under-19s but also an entire cast of Indian domestic players of the time. Disappointed as he is about leaving the World Cup earlier than hoped, Whatmore won't mind one last swipe at the team with whose fortunes - both in the World Cup and amongst its new generation of players - he has been closely connected.