Zimbabwe sack coach and captain ahead of India series
Days before the arrival of the Indian contingent, Zimbabwe have axed coach Dav Whatmore and captain Hamilton Masakadza. The team's poor performances last year including an early exit at the World T20 cup appear to have prompted the move with ex-Proteas pacer Makhaya Ntini named as the interim coach.
"Head coach Davenell Whatmore has had his contract terminated with immediate effect. Bowling coach Makhaya Ntini has taken over in an acting capacity until the appointment of a substantive head coach," Zimbabwe Cricket said on Tuesday.
"The board has also relieved Zimbabwe top-order batsman Hamilton Masakadza of the captaincy for all three formats of the game. His deputy, Graeme Cremer, will act in the interim."
Whatmore, a former Australian batsman, had guided Sri Lanka to their 1996 World Cup, but fell out with winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, an issue that would hurt his career later. Whatmore started coaching Bangladesh in 2003 and led the team to relative success, and was considered for the role of India coach in 2007. After being looked over by India and Pakistan, he joined the IPL team KKR for 3 seasons from 2009 when they had miserable outings. After coaching Pakistan for 2 years, he joined Zimbabwe in 2014.
It has been announced that Ntini will be joined by Proteas legend Lance Klusener as the batting coach and that he will remain for a period of 2 years.
India will start their Zimbabwe tour on June 11, and are scheduled to play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is at Harare.