Dav Whatmore, the 1996 World Cup winning coach for Sri Lanka, has joined a list of high-profile cricket personalities to be surprised by the progress Nepal has made in world cricket.

Whatmore, who came to Nepal upon an invitation from B2F (Bat & Ball Foundation) that was launched on Monday by the former Australian cricketer, said he was one of the people surprised by the amount of cricketing talent Nepal possess.

“Nepali cricket has surprised a lot of people. The calibre of players here has been much better than what people are thinking. I think I might put my hands up being one of those,” said Whatmore who follows the likes of former West Indies great Ian Bishop, Pakistan’s Ramiz Raza to be taken aback by Nepal’s cricketing prowess.

“The fact that Nepal are playing in the highest rank of the Associates in the World Cricket League is a testament to the level of skill and talent that exist in this country. From that point of view, there is no question about the talent of the boys here in terms of skills. What we need to do is give them more information and opportunity for that skill and talent to grow,” he added.

Whatmore played seven Test matches in 1979 and one one-day international in 1980 for Australia before starting coaching career in the 1990s. He terms winning World Cup for Sri Lanka, a country where he was born, was the pinnacle of his career. “It was really rewarding to be a part of a group that really wanted to achieve. That group of players in 1996 was a very talented bunch. We organised them as well as we can and let them go and be themselves. When we went back to Colombo to see the thousands of people lining up in a 30km stretch from airport to the President’s house was something to be seen and to be believed. Its really hard to describe in words but its a pinnacle of my coaching career,” he remembered.

Whatmore revealed that he lacked mental strength to prolong his playing career. “Looking back now, I had more talent and more ability than most of the boys then. What I didn’t have was the mental strength. As a youngster who was migrating from Sri Lanka to Australia, there were lot of hurdles. And I just didn’t have enough mental strength. But that really helped me as a coach to understand the pressure that boys go through and what is needed for them to gain more confidence in order to free their minds up and perform well,” said Whatmore, also the former coach of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.