MUMBAI, 1 June 2007 — Many in the media had proclaimed that Dav Whatmore was a front-runner for the post of the next Indian coach. But going by the latest development, the stocky Australian, all eager and all hopeful, may not even be in the reckoning for the top job.
Not only his backers but Whatmore himself may be in for a shock when the special seven-member committee meets on June 4. An opinion is gathering momentum that the next coach should be an Indian and not a foreigner.
An influential section of the committee to select the coach, headed by Sunil Gavaskar, has had second thoughts on the issue after it was more or less decided that the man they were looking for was Whatmore. The group feels that it is time to try out one of our own. That is not so much out of the Greg Chappell experience, but on account of the fact that Whatmore had done a lot of self-promotion and had shown undue eagerness to grab the plum assignment.
Gavaskar has openly criticized Whatmore for being part of the Bangladesh team’s brain trust that advised skipper Habibul Bashar to opt to bowl first on winning the toss in the second Test at Mirpur. This move turned out to be a big blunder. Both Bashar and Whatmore admitted as much in their post-match comments.
According to Gavaskar, this decision has shown Whatmore in poor light. He is strongly campaigning for a former Indian player to be the next coach. Among the names that are being thrown up are Gundappa Viswanath, Sandeep Patil and Mohinder Amarnath.
Of the three, both Viswanath and Amarnath have no previous experience of serving as a coach. Patil, on the other hand, is highly experienced. He had done an excellent job of his assignment with the Kenyan team, which had surprised everyone by making the semifinals of the 2003 World Cup.
Patil was the Indian team coach in 1996. Three players from that team, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid, are members of the present side. Both Ganguly and Dravid had made their debut under Patil’s tutelage.
Whether the majority in the special committee will eventually veer around to the idea of a native Indian coach, it is difficult to say. There are still some members who would like to stick to the practice of having a foreign coach.
There are indications of a split in the committee. The top brass of the BCCI, president Sharad Pawar, treasurer Srinivasan and secretary Niranjan Shah, had made a fleeting visit to Chittagong to apparently meet Whatmore. They are set to carry out this choice. But the prerogative of making a final decision is that of the special committee formed for the purpose.
