Dav Whatmore looking forward to Sourav Ganguly association

Newly-appointed Kolkata Knight Riders coach Dav Whatmore believes his association with Sourav Ganguly will help in improving the side's performance in the third edition of the IPL. "Ganguly has a great contribution to Indian cricket," Whatmore said. "He knows how to extract the best from his players. It's a wonderful experience working with him. We are looking for a fruitful season ahead."

Whatmore backed the former India captain, who will be leading KKR for the tournament to be held between March 12-April 25 next year, and said the forgetful experiences under former coach John Buchanan in the two previous seasons were a thing of the past. "I don't want to delve into what happened in the past. We are giving our best and preparing strongly for a competitive IPL 3 ahead."

In fact, Whatmore's appointment was part of a team management overhaul after the team finished sixth and bottom respectively in the two editions. The franchise not only recalled Ganguly to take over the captaincy from Brendon McCullum, but named Wasim Akram as their mentor, signed on Vijay Dahiya, the former India wicketkeeper and Delhi coach, to assist Whatmore, while retaining Andrew Leipus as physiotherapist and Adrian Le Roux as physical trainer.

At the conclusion of a two-day KKR camp, Whatmore revealed the sessions had been productive and had helped assess the skills of the local talents. "I am very happy to see the local talents, it was a productive two days of skill assessment and development in our endevour to make a strong side for IPL 3.

The two-day camp was attended by former ICL players Rohan Gavaskar, Eklak Ahmid, Ganapathi Vignesh. Gujarat offspinner Mohnish Parmar, who is on the list of bowlers with 'suspect' actions, and Services allrounder Yashpal Singh also attended the camp. Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ashok Dinda, Sourav Sarkar, Sourashish Lahiri and Rohan Banerjee, were also present, with Bengal not featuring in the latest round of Ranji Trophy Super League matches.

Whatmore, 55, played seven Tests for Australia and brings to the IPL an impressive record. Apart from the 1996 World Cup title for Sri Lanka, he guided Bangladesh to two historic wins in the 2007 World Cup against India and South Africa, and also coached Lancashire to title wins in the NatWest and Sunday League in 1998. Last year, he was coach of the India Under-19 team that won the junior World Cup in Malaysia.