Gurusinha - We Would Not Have The World Cup Without Whatmore (9 Dec 1996)

9 December 1996

We would not have the World Cup without Whatmore: Gurusinha

By Sa`adi Thawfeeq

One of Sri Lanka`s foremost batsmen, Asanka Gurusinha, currently in Australia representing North Melbourne club, has told an Australian newspaper that Sri Lanka would not have won the World Cup without coach Davenall Whatmore.

"We were a brilliant side, but mentally Whatmore changed us from a brilliant side that won here and there, to a consistently winning side,`` Gurusinha was quoted by `The Australian`.

"He changed our attitude and I don`t think we would have won such a championship as the World Cup without him. He was the main man to me. He did everything to us,`` Gurusinha told the paper.

The 30-year-old left-hander was one of the key figures in his country winning the World Cup, being the second highest rungetter for his side after Aravinda de Silva, with 307 runs and three fifties for an average of 51.16.

Sri Lanka-born former Australian Test cricketer, Whatmore quit his job as coach of the Sri Lanka team, six month before his two-year contract expired in June 1997, to become head coach of English county side Lancashire.

Since his departure, Sri Lanka have been looking for someone to succeed him. Efforts to find a suitable candidate have so far proved unsuccessful, although names of some past cricketers like Bob Simpson and Allan Lamb have surfaced.

The Sri Lanka Cricket Board are being tight-lipped about who will succeed Whatmore, failing to reveal names with the excuse that it would have adverse effects on negotiations.

Gurusinha left for Australia to fulfil the first of a three-year contract with club North Melbourne under controversial circumstances.

He was dropped from the Singer Champions trophy tournament in Sharjah after two matches and has been asked by the Cricket Board to return home six weeks before the Sri Lanka team embarks on its March tour to New Zealand.

"I don`t know what has happened. They wouldn`t tell me why I wasn`t playing. It came as a shock,`` Gurusinha told `The Australian`.

"They knew at the end of the one-day tournament that I was coming here and I think that`s the problem,`` said Gurusinha, who has indicated that he was prepared to join the Sri Lanka team in New Zealand.

However, that arrangement does not conform to the Cricket Board`s new regulations which requires a player to return home early and play in the domestic cricket matches to be considered for national selection, unless he is playing in the overseas country`s major tournament.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)