COLOMBO, JULY 8: The Sri Lankan Cricket Board today formally announced that their 1996 World Cup winning coach Dave Whatmore will start his second tenure with the national team following the axing of Arjuna Ranatunga as skipper.Sri Lanka will also terminate the services of former Australian player Trevor Chappell and two local coaches D Somachandra de Silva and Roy Dias. Their contract ends in September and it will not be extended, a board official said.The Sri Lankan Board announced that Whatmore, the Sri Lankan born former Australian batsman who guided them to a surprise World Cup victory in 1996, has been relieved as coach of English county side Lancashire and will arrive here on July 30 to take over as coach.Sri Lankan players had felt there were too many coaches and there had been serious overlapping causing great inconvenience to the team, member of the interim BCCSL panel, S Skandakumar said.Many feel Whatmore's return spelled the end for Ranatunga because the two were known to have crossed swords in the past.Whatmore, whose demand that he should be given a free hand was accepted by cricket officials desperate to get the team back on the rails after the World Cup debacle, will be paid 50,000 pounds (approx. Rs 36 lakh) a year.There will be no interference and Whatmore will also be allowed to speak to reporters freely, unlike in the past.The 45-year-old, who played seven Tests for Australia in 1978 and 1979, guided Sri Lanka to World Cup victory before joining Lancashire two years later.
