Dav What-no-more
By Rayed Mamun - 28 May 2007
Just like many other teams in recent times, Bangladesh is losing its coach. Other teams may have no problems in adjusting to a new coach, but Bangladesh could struggle without its ‘super coach’.
There has been endless debate since competitive sport started, on what responsibility a coach has. How much of the blame the coach should take, should his team play poorly? Sometimes the coach has hardly any influence on the team, yet if the team plays well, his job isn’t in any danger. Similarly, a coach can work extremely hard and have no results to show for it. The public never knows what happens behind the scenes with coaches and their influence on the team. With Dav Whatmore however, his influence on the team is crystal clear and cannot be denied.
Even before he started with Bangladesh, he achieved an unbelievable feat (at the time) by winning the World Cup with Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka were a weak team, and had only won two games out of eight at the previous World Cup. Four years later under Whatmore they won the World Cup, undefeated. Taking over the reigns at Bangladesh was never going to be easy, and as expected, Whatmore had a slow start. He has since guided Bangladesh to victories over India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Taking both of these once minnow, subcontinental, nations to competitive teams is no mean feat. Whatmore has used his personality to change these nations, by changing their mental attitude. Bangladesh used to be overawed by their opposition, and their performances on the field reflected that. My cricket coach always used to tell me that the game is 90% in the mind, and 10% technique. It looks like Whatmore has been successful because he has focussed more on that 90%. Bangladesh are now more confident and have more self-belief.
If a new coach comes in now, he may apply the same principles, but I doubt that he will be as good as Whatmore. He has taken Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to new heights. After the World Cup Bangladesh is on a high, and Dav’s loss might, unfortunately bring Bangladesh back down to earth.