Whatmore taking SL to new heights (10 Oct 95)

Title: Dav`s Winning Influence

Like the elephant, one of the symbols of Sri Lanka, Dav Whatmore was bigger than big in Colombo the week, and had plenty to trumpet.

When the island nation`s hitherto lightly regarded cricket team, now coached by the former Victorian batsman, returned home from its stunningly successful tour of Pakistan, the Minister for Sport was waiting to greet them and a shouting, cheering crowd lined the road from the airport to the offices of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board, where a party was soon in full swing.

A day earlier, in Faisalabad, the Sri Lankans had completed a two-one victory over Pakistan in the one-day series, as an emphatic exclamation point to their earlier feat of winning the Test series. also two-one. That was the first time any country had won in Pakistan since the West Indies in 1981, and before that, New Zealand in 1970.

The night of the final one-dayer, the team gathered at the Sri Lankan High Commission for a curry and rice feast, washed down with a five-litre bottle of black label scotch, and then danced the night away until 5am - with each other! In Pakistan, wine and women and perhaps even song are not always readily available for celebratory purposes.

"I just stood in the circle and moved my hips and legs," chuckled Whatmore. "But you should have seen these guys. They`ve got all the moves."

Apparently they have - on and off the field. The rest of the cricket world has watched with some astonishment as these historic events have unfolded, given that Sri Lanka had only ever won one Test abroad and that Pakistan was soon to be engaged with Australia in a so-called battle for the unofficial world championship.

Now that series has lost some of its gloss, and the Australia-Sri Lanka confrontation, which occupies the second half of the season just beginning, has claims to be billed as the main event.

Whatmore deserves enormous credit for this, and in Colombo, he is getting it. "Everybody has been very, very impressed with his coaching," says Elmo Rodrigobulle, the Sports Editor of the Ceylon Daily News.

"He is very popular with the boys. I think we will be wanting him to stay longer than the two years of his contract.

"For Sri Lanka cricket, this is a dream come true. The Aussies should not take us too easily now."

When Sri Lanka decided about a year ago to emulate the Australian system where Bob Simpson has been coach for a decade, they headhunted two of the biggest names in the game, Allan Border and Ian Botham.

In Whatmore, who was born in Colombo before moving to Melbourne with his family when he was a small boy, they settled for a much smaller fish.

He played just seven Tests for 293 runs at 22.53, and then only during the absence of most of Australia`s best players because of the World Series split. However, he was a fine player at the next level, scoring 6166 runs at 33.97 in 108 first-class matches. He made 10 Shield centuries for Victoria.

But more importantly, perhaps, he is one of those people who lives for the game and immerses himself in it completely. When his first-class career ended, he worked as a coach and promotions officer for Victorian cricket, and then as the cricket coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport.

He`s a grass-roots man, which is probably just what they need in Colombo, where the system is less sophisticated than it is in Australia.

Asked his secret this week, he said "I don`t think there`s any great magic formula. I`ve just tried to create the right environment, keep the players happy and friendly."

There`s been more to that than meets the eye, though.

Sri Lankan cricket is as political as it is anywhere else in Asia, and according to Rodrigobulle, there was an element lobbying for the replacement of several of the older players, including skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and star batsman Aravinda de Silva.

"This friction was uncalled for," he said, noting that de Silva had scored a match-winning century in the second Test and Ranatunga an equally important 87 in the third. "They have done well, and you shoud see the blushes on (the agitators`) faces now," Rodrigobulle said.

Whatmore offered an oblique backhander to the stirrers, too, saying: "We`ve got some talent and we`ve got some players reaching the end of their careers. But as often happens, they are playing their best cricket as they get near the end. Ranatunga and de Silva could go another five years.

"The youth and experience is mixing and blending well, and it`s starting to bear fruit."

Whatmore has been put in total charge of the players, and can call practise at any time. No excuses are accepted, short of a family death or personal illness. Not even work is allowed to intrude. Employers are legally bound to grant "national duty leave" whenever they get a letter from Whatmore requesting it - and that`s at least every week.

He is learning to cope with the inadequacies of the system - match and practice wickets not prepared on time, covers not used, administrative disorganisation. "It`s easy to get angry, but you have to understand that every country does things differently. That doesn`t make one right and one wrong. It`s a matter of extracting the best from each system," he said.

Even though his charges are Test players, he has had to remind them - forcefully after the innings defeat in the first match in Pakistan - of such basics as the need to make the bowler take the wicket, not have it presented to him.

"The brief is nothing specific, but involves a bit of psychology, a bit of skills, a bit of fitness and a bit of strategy," he says. Like Simpson, he has concentrated largely on improving the fielding, with impressive results, he says.

Whatmore, his wife and two children are esconced in a big house, staffed by two domestics, in central Colombo, and life is sweet. His contract expires in May, 1997, and he is unsure what the future will hold.

But he says: "When I took it, I always said I wasn`t going to fritter away two years. I really want to have an effect, rather than just coasting through. It`s started well, but it`s like making 100 in your first Test - now everybody expects it all the time. I am very mindful of that."