Vadodara: Sri Lanka's World Cup-winning Australian coach Dav Whatmore was on Sunday appointed Baroda's Ranji team coach as well as Director of Cricket, state body's secretary Ajit Lele confirmed.
Whatmore, the 1996 World Cup-winning coach with Sri Lanka, coached Kerala for three years before taking the new role. He guided Kerala to their first-ever Ranji Trophy semi-finals in 2018-19.
"I will, obviously, coach the senior team. But apart from that, I will have to lay down a structure at the Under-19 and Under-23 levels to create a feeder system along with the local coaches. It's a two-year contract, to begin with," a leading cricket website quoted Whatmore as saying.
Kerala witnessed a very poor 2019-2020 Ranji Trophy season as they finished on the 17th position out of 18 teams in the combined Groups A and B points table with a solitary win in eight matches. After the season, Kerala and Whatmore parted ways.
Whatmore is a noted coach, who was also in charge of India U-19 team that won the junior World Cup in Malaysia back in 2008 under Virat Kohli's captaincy.
BCA secretary Lele told a leading news agency, "Whatmore has been appointed as coach of the Ranji trophy team and also the Director of Cricket for a period of two years."
In his role as Director of Cricket, the age-group coaches, U-23, U-19 and U-16 will be guided by the Australian, Lele said.
It is learnt that after BCA offered him the job, Whatmore gave a go-ahead from his end and communicated his decision to former Mumbai batsman Shishir Hattangadi, who is the CEO of the Association.
Following a dismal season, Whatmore had parted ways with Kerala after spending three years with the southern side.
