Bob Woolmer

My final image of Bob Woolmer was of him packing up his laptop at the end of the Pakistan – Ireland game and heading off into the dressing room. There was frustration and despair on his face and it seemed like the final chapter of his coaching career. It was a poignant moment. I remember saying that he had better go straight to South Africa and not even bother returning to Pakistan because he was going to be fired. The next morning he was dead. I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it, I was thinking “This is only a game, nobody is supposed to die.” This is not the way it should end, but it did.

We will no longer hear Woolmer’s positive spin on the wheelers and dealers that masqueraded as the Pakistan Cricket Board. While Bob does have to take some of the responsibility for the abysmal performance of the Pakistan team, the team has been on a downward spiral since the forfeiture of the Oval Test match. The controversy and scandals have come one after the other. The rot starts at the top and the PCB has to be blamed. It reminds me of how Jagmohan Dalmiya ruined what should have been his swansong by clinging onto power by any means possible, in the process forgetting that there was a cricket team to develop.

I will remember Bob as the pioneering laptop wielding coach of South Africa who made the machine synonymous with modern day coaching and a must have tool for all international cricket teams. I will also remember Bob for his stout and naïve denial that match fixing occurred while he was in charge of the South African team and was similarly reminded of his naiveté during the Oval test match fiasco while listening to his pronouncements on the greater good of Anglo-Muslim sporting competition. Even then he never quit the Pakistan team; in fact he has stood by all his players including the most volatile of them all Shoaib Akthar.

Thank you Bob, you have left the game better than you found it.