Whatmore's manager Kaustuv Lahiri confirmed the latest development.
Former Australian cricketer Dav Whatmore is set to become Baroda Ranji Trophy team's first overseas coach, as the Baroda Cricket Association announced the latest appointment for the upcoming season.
On Tuesday (April 14), the BCA said that they have done all formalities with Whatmore regarding his appointment as Baroda head coach, but he couldn’t sign the papers due to the travel ban in the country at the moment because of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
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Whatmore, who coached Kerala for the last three seasons, will replace Sanath Kumar as head coach of Baroda’s Ranji team. He was also named BCA’s Cricket Director for the next two seasons.
The Australian coach has vast experience having guided Sri Lanka to 1996 World Cup glory, while coached Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore and Zimbabwe at the highest level.
The 66-year-old, who played 7 Tests and 1 ODI for Australia, has also coached the number of domestic teams around the world besides winning the 2008 Under-19 World Cup with Virat Kohli.
BCA secretary Ajit Lele told Mid-Day: “We have almost finalized Whatmore and will give him a letter of intent in a couple of days. Chandrakant Pandit and Sulakshan Kulkarni were also in the fray, but Pandit became coach of Madhya Pradesh, so we decided to go with Whatmore.”
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He added, “In this time of lockdown, it is not possible for him to come down to India and sign the contract, but we are sending him the letter of intent by today or tomorrow and once he returns to India, we can complete the formalities. There were a few other candidates in the fray as well, but we have decided to go ahead with Whatmore. He has vast experience and that will help us in the future.”
He also revealed that Whatmore will become the most expensive first-class coach in India and the reason behind this was his huge experience of handling the number of international teams.
Lele signed off by saying, “He will become the most expensive coach of a first-class team in our country and also the first foreign coach of a Baroda Ranji Trophy team. He has huge experience of handling national teams like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh so we gave him a priority.”
(With Mid-Day/Starsport Inputs)