What more do you need for once world champs? Dave’s the answ

So, when he joined the team in 1995, he made drastic changes in the team’s training style. “Half the team did not know how to swim. If it was raining there would be no training. If someone had a slight cold, or a fever, he would excuse himself from practice. I stopped all this. And instead of long hours of training I made it shorter but far more intense and fruitful.”

Whatmore believes sports is not just physical. “What the players require is training in how to cope with different match situations, like, say, a stressful situation. A player must be equippedto deal with it and skill is just one part of it.”

Whatmore has been with the team only for a couple of months in his second stint, yet the changes in the attitude of the players is already visible. He agrees that this team does not stand comparison to the one which won the 1996 World Cup.

“That team had tremendous talent and once they started believing in themselves they became world-beaters. To make this team a well-rounded one, we have to look for more talent but having made a final of a tournament after a big gap is itself very encouraging,” he says.

He has a better working relationship with the present lot as the players are on contract with the Board. “It is an employee, employer’s relationship now and they have to report to us everyday without fail.”

He is a full-time coach and will be with them nine months a year. He says: “A coach has to monitor each and every activity of a player and each one has his own set of problems. There may be a girlfriend troubling a player that he is notspending enough time with her or a wife nagging him or some other problem. And, he is likely to get affected by that which will get reflected on his performance. It is not only the lows of a player which have to be taken care of, even the highs have to be balanced properly. When a player becomes to big that too could be bad for him and it is necessary to maintain a proper balance. It is my job to put all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together and make an environment in the team which is cohesive and brings out the best in each individual.”

Don’t the players resent `harsh’ methods of training? His answer is interesting. “To be kind, you have to be cruel. The players are given a kind of training which may be tough and they also are not in a condition to say no as they are the employees of the Board. We also have our own doctor now who treats the players in case of an ailment. The doctors outside do not understand sports-related problems and may advise rest to a player when he has slight fever or a sorethroat. What we are doing now is that if a player gets a doctor’s certificate we get him rechecked and then decide what to do.”

He smiles: “We are in a situation today that if a player is even on his death bed, we can order him to come for training and he can’t refuse.”Does Whatmore appear some kind of a dictator when he says things like these? May be this kind of discipline is needed, especially in the sub-continent to get the best out of a player. Whatmore’s philosophy of coaching seems to be: “In the long run all one is doing is for the benefit of the team and instead of getting close to a player it is better to earn his respect.”

India needs 11 Robin Singhs

“What can I say from outside? All I can say is that it has tremendous potential,” says Whatmore reluctantly when asked his views on the Indian team.

Whatmore believes geographical reasons may be a factor which hampers the Indian coach from monitoring the fitness levels of a player as once he goes back to his state he may not evenhave access to proper training facilities. Sri Lanka is lucky in this respect as most of the players are based in Colombo, making monitoring for the coach.

Whatmore says, “To gain a bit one has to sacrifice a lot and I feel the Indian team requires 11 Robin Singhs. He does appear to be a man who takes a lot of care on his training, even when it is off season.”

Asked if would like to coach the Indian team, Whatmore said: “Right now I am committed to the Sri Lankan team for three years and our long-term goal is the 2003 World Cup. But it definitely will be a great challenge to be the coach of the Indian team.”