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Bangladesh appoint Dav Whatmore as national coach

Dav Whatmore to coach Bangladesh...

Wisden CricInfo
24-Aug-2005
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) have hired Dav Whatmore as national coach for a two-year term starting on June 1 as they bid to turnaround their poor international form.
The Sri Lanka-born Australian replaces former Pakistani fast bowler Mohsin Kamal, who was sacked after the Tiger's disappointing performance in the 2003 World Cup, and interim coach Sarwar Imran who is currently in charge.
The Sri Lanka Cricket Board informed Whatmore three weeks ago that his contract would not be renewed when it expired at the end of May. The former Australian batsman had coached Sri Lanka since the 1999 World Cup.
The BCB first approached Whatmore during the World Cup. Negotiations continued thereafter before an agreement was signed by both parties on Saturday. Whatmore had also been linked to a job coaching India's juniors.
Whatmore will miss the forthcoming Test series against South Africa starting in Dhaka on April 24 and his first assignment will be Bangladesh's tough winter tour to Australia.
Bangladesh's seventh coach since 1990, Whatmore said he was excited by the challenge posed by coaching the minnows, who last week they recorded a 40th consecutive match without a win.
"I feel that I have something to offer and I will be giving 100%," said Whatmore, speaking to the media in Colombo. "It will be a huge challenge but I have always loved that."
"I feel that the players perhaps have a defeatist attitude at present and my first job will be to turn that around - they have some boys with terrific talent."
"The overall objective will be to seek an improvement in individual performance rather than results - the first Test win will happen if we do that."
Granted Test status in 2001, Bangladesh have avoided defeat in just one of their 17 Tests - a washout against Zimbabwe.