Dav Whatmore, the former Australian player took over as the coach of the Kerala Ranji side, replacing Tinu Yohannan.

Whatmore will be the third coach for Kerala within a period of six months, as the side started the 2016/17 season with P. Balachandran who was sacked mid-way through the Ranji season, after team’s poor form.

Later, the KCA roped in Tinu Yohannan, who also failed to turn the fortunes of the team, as the team could neither win the zonal league of Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and also failed to qualify for the knockout stage of Vijay Hazare Trophy. The state association was for looking for a new coach to guide a number of youngsters in the side and thus inked on him.

Whatmore played a key role in Sri Lanka’s successful triumph in the 1996 World Cup, where Arjuna Ranatunga side lifted the World Cup for the first time by defeating Australia.

Later, Whatmore went on to coach Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe as well. At one stage, he was quite close to becoming coach of Indian team as well.

Kerala had a torrid run in the Ranji Trophy season, as they won only one Ranji game out of the nine. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy, they finished fourth in the points table. Their poor form continued in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well they were ruled out of the first round in the List A tournament.

The season was also marred by controversy when there was a change of coach mid-way season. To add it, Kerala camp got in a bad light when Sanju Samson allegedly moved out of the dressing room after he was dropped from a Ranji tie against Tripura.

It was also said that he even broke hotels furniture. Later, he apologised for his behaviour and was included in the team.

Kerala is one of the weakest sides in the domestic circuit, mainly due to the absence of star players. The first challenge in front of Whatmore will be to insert some confidence in the team and then build a road map of how this side can face big teams.