Born in Sri Lanka, Davenell Frederick Whatmore was an international cricketer who played just seven Test matches and one ODI for Australia from 1979 to 1980. A right-handed batsman, he played for Victoria at the first-class level and scored over 6000 runs.

Whatmore retired from professional cricket in 1988-89 in order to pursue a career in coaching. He is famously known to have coached the Sri Lankan cricket team during the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup. The biggest challenge to his coaching came in 2003, when he was appointed as the coach of the Bangladesh cricket team. Under him, the face of Bangladesh cricket changed rapidly. He filled the team with optimism and self-confidence that became evident when Bangladesh shocked the other teams, one after the other. Their first Test victory came under Whatmore, in 2005. In the same year, they defeated Australia and took everyone by surprise. In the 2007 World Cup, Bangladesh beat South Africa as well as India, proceeding to the Super Eight stage. However at the end of the World Cup, Whatmore resigned as the coach of Bangladesh.

In 2010, he was appointed as the coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. Following that, he replaced Mohsin Khan as Pakistan’s head coach in 2012.