The world of professional cricket coaching is a relatively small one, so the sudden passing of Bob Woolmer has hit those who make their living teaching the sport extremely hard. Bob Woolmer was a legend in the coaching community. He was the first of the real innovators in the game and always wanted to challenge accepted norms to see if he could give a competitive advantage to his players.
His impact in South Africa started before he began coaching the national side, as he helped the Cape Coloured Avendale Cricket Club in Cape Town adjust to premier league cricket with great success. He had a major role in bringing Boland up from 'B' grade status into 1st class cricket in the South African provincial championship, unearthing several future national players in the process.
His effect on Warwickshire was unprecedented and in the mid-90's they became the powerhouse side in English county cricket based upon a team ethic and unconventional tactics fostered by Woolmer and the then captain Dermot Reeve. Alan Donald, Warwickshire's favourite overseas player, used to contact Woolmer for advice frequently when on national duty and this prompted the South African authorities to employ him as soon as he was available.
Under Woolmer, South Africa became the only side that could consistently challenge the might of Australia and during the 1999 World Cup, they looked the strongest team on show and would surely have won the competition but for the amazing finish to the Edgbaston semi-final when Donald found himself bizarrely run out with the scores tied and Australia on the brink of defeat.
That defeat hurt Woolmer deeply as it did the whole of the South African team. Moving on from coaching them, he had another stint at Warwickshire before joining the ICC's development programme for non-test playing sides as their High Performance Director. The irony that Bob's last game in charge should result in his Pakistan side losing to an Ireland team he helped improve is typical of cricket.
Coaching Pakistan is the hardest job in world cricket and in the last year alone, Woolmer had to deal with forfeited test matches, failed drug tests, government interference with his team and player fallouts amongst other things. Perhaps the stress of running a side who always appear to be in a chaotic state proved too much for him. Whatever the reasons, the loss of Bob Woolmer represents the saddest day the world of cricket has had for many years. Our thoughts go out to his family at this most difficult of times and we remember a man who gave everything he had to cricket, and then some.
R.I.P Bob,
Wello
