11 April,2014 08:38 AM IST | | Bipin Dani
On Tuesday, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara were critical of some officials in the Sri Lankan cricket board for handling the issue related to their retirement from T20 cricket poorly
Dav Whatmore. Pic/Getty Images
On Tuesday, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara were critical of some officials in the Sri Lankan cricket board for handling the issue related to their retirement from T20 cricket poorly.
Dav Whatmore. Pic/Getty Images
A day later, Dav Whatmore, who coached Lanka to World Cup glory in 1996, recalled the days after the memorable triumph, but was critical of the board for not rewarding the support staff of the team.
"I am not complaining, but the fact is that there was no prize money for the members of the support staff. Alex Kountouris, the team physio, and me were only entertained at dinner," he recalled.
Double standards
"Interestingly, the members of the winning team were gifted cars. With the intervention of ministers, the players were exempt from paying duty on those expensive cars.
A few of the players were even allotted plots of land. But we are not feeling bad as it is now history," added Whatmore who followed Lanka's progress in the World T20 closely.
Nevertheless Kountouris, who is now the Australian team's physio, will take heart from the fact that SLC named a newly built training room after him. Meanwhile, Whatmore was pleasantly surprised with Sri Lanka's victory in Dhaka, but at the same time disappointed that India lost.
"I have mixed feelings for both teams. It was wonderful to see Sri Lankan win but I was also sad that India lost after performing so well in all the other matches," he said from Melbourne.
