CAPE TOWN: Dav Whatmore has signed a four-year contract to coach Zimbabwe, the country's cricket board said on Thursday.

“We signed a contract yesterday which is going to be a four-year deal,” Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Wilson Manase said in a press conference.

Whatmore was unveiled as coach in December on a short-term deal till the end of the World Cup.

Manase praised the performance of the team in Australia and New Zealand, where they won one of their six matches but were competitive against the top-ranked nations.

Former Australia international Whatmore, who coached the country of his birth Sri Lanka to the World Cup title in 1996, is in charge of his fourth national side having also led Bangladesh and Pakistan.

His next task will be to take Zimbabwe on a limited overs tour of Pakistan next month, the first Test-playing nation to do so since the 2009 attack by gunmen on the visiting Sri Lankan cricketers.

Zimbabwe will also host India and New Zealand later this year.