Colombo: Sri Lanka's outgoing cricket coach Dav Whatmore said on Monday he will try to break the "defeatist attitude" of the Bangladesh national team and looked forward to the "enormous challenge" of coaching it. Whatmore, who takes over as Bangladesh's coach next month, said his initial plan was to build individual players and give them confidence to win international matches. "There is good talent, but the team has a defeatist attitude," Whatmore told reporters here. "What needs to be done is to change that basic attitude. When individual players perform better, the entire team will improve." "This is a challenge and I am happy with challenges. I always liked challenges," said Whatmore who coached Sri Lanka to its 1996 World Cup victory. Bangladesh has yet to win a Test match since being granted Test status in 2000 and has lost 35 of its last 36 One-dayers with one game rained off. The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) effectively sacked Whatmore last month when it refused to extend his contract which was set to expire at the end of May. "Whatmore has been with the team for a long time and what we feel is that there should be fresh thinking," said Anura Tennekoon, the Board's chief executive officer. Whatmore, a Sri Lanka-born Australian national, said he and his family were leaving Sri Lanka with mixed feelings. "We dearly love this country and its people and wish to thank them for their incredible support wherever we travelled in the island," he said. Whatmore admitted his relations with some of the Sri Lankan cricketers and officials had been strained at times, but declined to discuss details. "The current Interim Committee (of the BCCSL) has decided to move in a different direction with coaching and I have no problems with that," Whatmore said. "I have always said there's only two types of coaches - ones that are sacked and ones that are about to be sacked." Copyright AFP 2001

Tags: cricket, coach dav whatmore, defeatist attitude, bangladesh national cricket team, board of control for cricket in sri lanka (bccsl), anura tennekoon.