Dubai: Dave Whatmore, World Cup-winning coach for Sri Lanka in 1996, has set his eyes on the UAE. Known for his proficiency in grooming young talent, the Australian will coach 20 cricketers under the age of 13 picked from UAE schools.
Whatmore’s first coaching clinic will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Raffles World Academy in Jumeirah. Arena Sports, a sports management company which has star players like former Test stars Sachin Tendulkar and Robin Singh, supporting their effort to groom young talented cricketers, is organising the Whatmore coaching clinic.
Speaking to Gulf News, Rajesh Chauhan, Manger Sports Development of Arena Sports, said: “The 20 talented cricketers have
been picked by Whatmore who was here to witness the Arena Sports Twenty20 Under-13 Inter-School Championship held last month. Altogether 20 schools participated in the tournament and the best twenty is being given free coaching. Whatmore’s mission is to unearth a bunch of extremely talented cricketers for the UAE Under-15 team and we are only supporting his mission.”
Navneet Sharma and Prem Kumar are the founders of Arena Sports.
The Arena Sports inter-school tournament was held at three centres — ICC Academy, Skyline University and Fairgrounds Oval — was a huge success. It produced 10 half-centuries and one century and three five wicket hauls with Delhi Private School, Dubai emerging as the champions.
“We will now focus on spotting Under-16 cricketers and hence has planned to conduct our next edition for higher age group for Whatmore to pick the best. We will be setting up Whatmore School of Cricket here and Whatmore will be regularly visiting the centre. After every visit he would be giving tips and guidelines and also study each cricketer’s progress. Whatmore’s effort will be supported by hand-picked highly qualified coaches,” said Chauhan.
For more details on the efforts to promote grassroots cricket with Whatmore and register with his clinic, contact email: asa@thearenasports.com. or visit www.thearenasports.com
