Bob Woolmer ? In remembrance

Robert Andrew Woolmer, better known as Bob Woolmer, was an international cricketer for England, and later took up coaching and commentary duties professionally. His playing career divned 19 Test matches and 6 one-day internationals. As a coach, he was in charge of South Africa, Warwickshire and Pakistan at different points of time.

Cricket was probably destined to feature in Woolmer’s life considering he was born in a hospital across the road from the Kanpur cricket ground in India. His father, cricketer Clarence Woolmer, was representing United Provinces in India’s domestic tournament – the Ranji Trophy. His early school years were spent in England and at a young age, he was already playing the gentleman’s game. In fact, the captain of the Kent team that Bob played in was instrumental in converting him from an off-spinner to a medium pace bowler. At age 20, he made his championship debut against Essex. His bowling made him an ideal candidate for the one-day version of the game and he won a county cap in 1969.

He made his Test debut in 1975 for England and even ran his own cricket school. An all-rounder to start with, Woolmer was also known for his centuries, all of which came against Australia. Woolmer retired from first-class cricket in 1984 and moved to South Africa, where he coached at schools for cricket and hockey. 1987 saw his return to England to coach domestic teams with a fair degree of success. And in 1995, he took up his biggest assignment – that of coaching the South Africa national cricket team. Under his tutelage, the team did extremely well and had a high success ratio in both Tests and ODIs for quite a few years.

Known for his innovative coaching methods, Woolmer was one of the first to introduce computer analysis to improve cricket skills. Surely, many cricketers would have learnt a great deal from Woolmer. The genial man also worked for the ICC in its efforts to encourage cricket in countries where the sport was still nascent. Later, he took up the assignment to coach Pakistan. Unfortunately, his untimely demise, while in the West Indies for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, ended his coaching stint.

A year on, he is fondly remembered by Pakistani cricketers who were associated with him. Shahid Afridi admired Woolmer for his cricketing mind and said that the coach was always working with them on their game. Mohammad Asif said Woolmer had supported him a lot after his disappointing Test debut in early 2005 in Australia. He believed that he supported good players and understood cricket and a player’s psyche very well.