Man with the Lankan plan

Robert Winder meets the coach behind Sri Lanka's rise to prominence

ON the eve of the World Cup final, Sri Lanka's coach, Davenell Whatmore, found his hotel room alive with well-wishing faxes and phone calls. Nothing odd about that: his team has played with vibrant exuberance throughout the tournament, and now they had the opportunity not only to announce their arrival at cricket's top table, but also to avenge themselves for all the slights - the ball tampering accusations, the throwing allegations against Muralitharan, the refusal of Australia to visit Colombo - they had suffered at the hands of the Aussies.

But there was at least one unusual thing about the good luck messages: they came from Australia. One fax, in particular, made him pause. It was from the Australian Institute of Sport in Melbourne, where Whatmore, Sri Lankan-born but an Australian by upbringing, spent four years and was head coach. "It would be a bit much to say we hope you win," the fax began, "but we hope you do well." Whatmore read it carefully. "That's nice," he said. "Never could have done any of this without what I learned there."

Not the least of the ironies surrounding today's World Cup final is the fact that the Sri Lankan team has been, to a large extent, made in Australia. Whatmore took charge in June 1995, and has swiftly transformed a talented group of individuals into a compact, dashing and intelligent team. Whatmore, a David Boon-type who toured India with Kim Hughes's team in 1979, can also claim a good part of the credit for the audacious way his team attacks the first 15 overs of the innings. "I don't think it had ever really been taken on before, what you can do," he said. "But people get it wrong who think we're sending in sloggers. These are experienced players - Jayasuriya, the player of the tournament, has played 102 one- day internationals, and Kaluwitharana has played 46 or 47. You can't do this by promoting a bowler to slog. I'd be bold enough to say that nearly all the shots they play are proper shots - not rank slogs. I don't think the first 15 overs have been exploited as much as we've done in the last six months. In a way we've exposed them. Everyone knows it, but they haven't really taken it on."

Fielding sides have been slow to respond. "Actually, a lot of it depends on how shrewd the captain is," said Whatmore. "When we played India the first time we saw them line up, and they had third man and fine leg up in the circle. Unbelievable. We took 50 off the first four overs or so. But that's what we're striving to do - put the opposition under so much pressure they don't know what they're doing."

It was in the semi-final against India that the plan came under its fiercest pressure. Everyone expected the two openers to blaze away from the first ball, and that's exactly what they did: they lost both openers in three balls, to catches (where else?) at deep third man. It looked as if the wheels might come off, but Da Silva saved the day in the best and bravest manner - by batting on as if nothing had happened, and taking 50 off the next 33 balls.

"Well, it wasn't very nice," Whatmore said. "But it wasn't a real shock. We'd talked and talked about it, and knew that at some point, it wasn't going to work. And it fell down in a big way in the semi-final. But we also know that we have five more batsmen. So we didn't panic. If you have a plan, you have also to know what you'll do if it doesn't come off."

Whatmore is modest - even slightly uncertain - about the ability of a coach to transform a team. "One thing I am sure of," he said, "is that it's the players who make the coach. You have always to remember that. The talent has to be there. You can't give good players a bad coach - you can ruin them. But you can't invent what isn't there. I guess what you try to do is come up with something that makes each individual performance part of something bigger."

Whatmore has no doubts about the size of the task facing his players today. "Australia are on another level," he said. "We need to intensify training , to up the tempo. In terms of fitness and strength, they're way ahead. And the psychological factor in modern sport is huge. We're only on the ground floor in these areas. Also there just isn't the domestic structure in Sri Lanka to produce the players."

Whatmore's contract runs until 1997, three years before the Sri Lankan Cricket Board has pledged to make the islanders the best cricket team in the world. His home remains in Australia, so it is a long commute. But so far it has been a rewarding one. As for the final, well, what's to lose? "Actually," we don't really think about winning," said Whatmore. "It's a question of concentrating on the process. If the talent is there, which it is, then you apply yourself to what you're doing, and then you've got a better than even chance."

The consensus in Pakistan is that Australia owe Sri Lanka one. They have a nasty habit of not obliging on the pitch. But it might be that in Dav Whatmore they have already made an ample contribution to their opponents. But even if Sri Lanka lose the final, they have already made an emphatic impact on the tournament. English cricket fans can only look on and sigh.

World Cup results

Quarter-finals

Sat 9 Mar: Faisalabad: England 235-8 (P A J DeFreitas 67), Sri Lanka 236-5 (S T Jayasuriya 82), Sri Lanka won by five wickets. Bangalore: India 287-8 (N R Sidhu 93), Pakistan 248-9 (Aamir Sohail 55), India won by 39 runs.

Mon 11 Mar: Karachi: West Indies 264-8 (S Chanderpaul 56, B C Lara 111), South Africa 245 (A C Hudson 54, D J Cullinan 69; R A Harper 4-47), West Indies won by 19 runs. Madras: New Zealand 286-9 (L K Germon 89, C Z Harris 130), Australia 289-4 (M E Waugh 110, S R Waugh 59no), Australia won by six wickets.

Semi-finals

Wed 13 Mar: Calcutta: Sri Lanka 251-8 (P A de Silva 66, R S Mahanama 58), India 120-8 (S R Tendulkar 65), Sri Lanka won by default.

Thurs 14 Mar: Chandigarh: Australia 207-8 (S G Law 72, M G Bevan 69), West Indies 202 (S Chanderpaul 80, R B Richardson 49no; S K Warne 4-36). Australia won by 5 runs.

Final

Today: Australia v Sri Lanka (Gaddafi stadium, Lahore, Pakistan).