Dav Whatmore, the former national coach of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, has signed a six-month deal with the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) and will work with the senior team as head coach, beginning from September, 2017. The news was confirmed by the KCA last week with the World Cup-winning coach expected to steer Kerala through the upcoming 2017-18 Indian domestic season.
While Whatmore’s main job will be with the senior team, he is also expected to be involved with various age-group programmes run by the KCA as well as working with Kerala’s Under-23 team.
The KCA were said to be in talks with Whatmore during the latter’s recent visit to Chennai, where he is currently on a three-year deal as a consultant with the Sri Ramachandra University, in collaboration with his cricket academy – Whatmore Centre of Cricket – and a formal contract was later finalized.
Whatmore had also interacted with the members of the Kerala T20 squad who had assembled for the South Zone leg of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, held in Chennai, in January.
The 63-year old Whatmore will replace P. Balachandran, who was sacked mid-way through last season’s Ranji trophy. Former India pacer, Tinu Yohannan, was later appointed as the coach but Kerala failed to make it to the knockout stages of India’s premier first-class competition. Things didn’t get better in the shorter formats of the game either – Kerala finished a lowly fourth in the South Zone leg of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament and failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the 50-over Vijay Hazare Championships.
 and will work with the senior team as head coach, beginning from September, 2017. The news was confirmed by the KCA last week with the World Cup-winning coach expected to steer Kerala through the upcoming 2017-18 Indian domestic season.){kind=link}