Rediff

Chittagong, May 17: Dav Whatmore, widely tipped to become India's next cricket coach, on Thursday said he was used to handling star players and was ready for the challenge if given an opportunity.

"All I can say is I am ready for the challenge if the opportunity comes. I am as much ready to sink my teeth into the problems and find out a solution as the BCCI would want me to," Whatmore said on the eve of the first Test in Chittagong.

Whatmore, whose contract with Bangladesh comes to an end after the current series, said he had a round of initial discussion with Indian team Cricket Manager Ravi Shastri and that he had replied in the affirmative.

"I had a short discussion with Ravi about taking up the job of coaching India and I have said in the affirmative. The discussion centred around how interested I am. I am satisfied with the initial discussion. We are both satisfied," Whatmore said.

He refused to divulge the details, saying "this is not for public consumption".

Meanwhile, six top members of the BCCI, including its President Sharad Pawar and Secretary Niranjan Shah are slated to arrive in Chittagong on Saturday, and are expected to have discussions with Whatmore.

The 53-year-old Australian, who coached Sri Lanka to the World Cup triumph in 1996 and guided Bangladesh to a good performance in the recent edition of the mega event, said he would have no problem handling the Indian stars.

"It's a question of man-management and how far one wants to take ones career forward and I have to deal with them individually if and when the time comes," he said.

Whatmore said he had handled stars as coach of Lancashire and Sri Lanka.

"I have had star material always. When I coached Lancashire the first season was a disaster, but the second season was the best the county had in their entire cricketing history. And both the seasons they had nine of the England [Images] team players in the side and three overseas players who were stars too.

"Sri lanka had players like Arvinda De Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga and Asanka Gurusinghe. They were big stars in their country. But I never found it difficult to handle them.

"What we tried to do was that the practice sessions were meaningful. The tactical part was taken care of. The team meetings were exciting and vibrant. I was not the only one talking. That's the whole idea."

He said the Indian players needed to go about their task with a positive attitude.

"I think what we need is positive attitude and a reassurance among the boys."

On Bangladesh, he said the most difficult part of coaching the team was coping with frustration of making repeated mistakes.

"They had a few good players when I took over. But then they were mediocre and I had to cope up with mediocrity. They were more reactive than being proactive."