 Woolmer in December 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Robert Andrew Woolmer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1948-05-14)14 May 1948 Cawnpore,United Provinces,India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 18 March 2007(2007-03-18) (aged 58) Kingston, Jamaica | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Woollie, The-Bob | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-armmedium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | All-rounder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relations | Clarence Woolmer (father) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 463) | 31 July 1975 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 2 July 1981 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ODI debut (cap 16) | 24 August 1972 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last ODI | 28 August 1976 v West Indies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1968–1984 | Kent | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1973/74–1975/76 | Natal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1980/81 | Western Province | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coaching information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1994–1999 | South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004–2007 | Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Source:CricInfo,22 August 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert Andrew Woolmer (14 May 1948 – 18 March 2007) was an English cricket coach,cricketer, and acommentator. He played in 19Test matches and sixOne Day Internationals for theEngland cricket team and later coachedSouth Africa,Warwickshire andPakistan. During his coaching career with South Africa, he led the team to being the winners of the1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, first of the only two ICC titles the country has won to date.
On 18 March 2007, Woolmer died suddenly inJamaica, just a few hours after the Pakistan team's unexpected elimination at the hands ofIreland in the2007 Cricket World Cup. Shortly afterwards, Jamaican police announced that they were opening a murder investigation into Woolmer's death. In November 2007, a jury in Jamaica recorded an open verdict on Woolmer's death.[1]
Woolmer was born in the Georgina McRobert Memorial Hospital across the road from theGreen Park Stadium inKanpur,[2] India on 14 May 1948. His father was the cricketerClarence Woolmer, who representedUnited Provinces (nowUttar Pradesh) in theRanji Trophy. At the age of 10, Woolmer witnessedHanif Mohammad scoring 499, setting a world record for the highest score infirst-class cricket.[3] Some 35 years later, Woolmer, as coach ofWarwickshire County Cricket Club, was watching when the county's batsmanBrian Lara passed that mark, setting a new record of 501not out.[3]
Woolmer went to school inKent, first atYardley Court inTonbridge and thenThe Skinners' School inRoyal Tunbridge Wells. When he was 15,Colin Page, the coach and captain of the Kent second XI, converted him from an off-spinner to a medium pace bowler.
Woolmer's first job was as a sales representative forICI, and his first senior cricket was with theTunbridge Wells Cricket Club and with Kent's second XI.
In 1968, at the age of 20, Woolmer joined the Kent cricket staff and made his championship debut against Essex. His ability to move the ball about at medium-pace was ideally suited to one-day cricket at which he became a specialist. He won hiscounty cap in 1969. Woolmer began his coaching career in South Africa in 1970–71 at the age of 22 and by 1975, when he made his Test debut, he had become a teacher ofphysical education at Holmewood House prep school in Kent as well as running his own cricket school – at the time one of the youngest cricket school owners anywhere.
Woolmer played Englishcounty cricket forKent, initially as anall-rounder. He graduated toTest cricket withEngland in 1975 again, at first, as an all-rounder, having taken ahat-trick forMCC against the touringAustralian cricket team with his fast-medium bowling. But he was dropped after his first Test, only reappearing in the final match of the series atThe Oval where he scored 149, batting at number five, then the slowest Test century for England against Australia.[4] Further batting success followed over the next two seasons, including two further centuries against Australia in 1977. Rarely for an Englishman since the Second World War, all his Test centuries were made against Australia.
Woolmer was also a regular in EnglandODI cricket from 1972 to 1976. But Woolmer's international career stalled after he joined theWorld Series break-away group run byKerry Packer. He continued to have success with Kent, helping them to win theCounty Championship and theBenson and Hedges Cup in 1978, winning theman of the match award in the final of the latter. But though he was recalled to the Test team for four matches in 1980 and 1981 after the World Series Cricket affair was over, he never recaptured the form of the mid-1970s. He also took part in the firstrebel tour of South Africa of 1982, a move that effectively ended his international career.[5]
Woolmer obtained his coaching qualification in 1968.[6]
After retiring from first-class cricket in 1984, he emigrated to South Africa, where he coached cricket andhockey at high schools. He also became involved in the Avendale Cricket Club in Athlone, Cape Town. He preferred to join a 'coloured' club rather than a 'white' one in apartheid South Africa. He was an inspiration to Avendale and was instrumental in assisting the club to grow and be successful. Because of him, there is still an annual programme for a talented Avendale cricketer to spend a summer atLord Wandsworth College in Hampshire.[7] Woolmer was the coach when South Africa won the1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, and in the same year the country won gold in the1998 Commonwealth Games.
He returned to England in 1987 to coach the second eleven at Kent.[6] He went on to coach theWarwickshire County Cricket Club in 1991, the side winning theNatwest Trophy in 1993, and three out of four trophies contested the next year. He continued his success by leading Warwickshire to Natwest and County Championship success in 1995, before taking on the Post of South African National Coach.
Woolmer is thought to be the only person to have witnessed bothBrian Lara's innings of 501 not out againstDurham in 1994 andHanif Mohammad's 499 inKarachi in 1958.[8]
Woolmer was known for his progressive coaching techniques. He is credited with having made thereverse sweep a more popular shot forbatsmen in the 1990s,[9][10] as well as being one of the first to use computer analysis, and trying to adapt the knowledge ofgoalkeepers towicketkeepers in cricket.[11] He later attracted attention at the 1999 World Cup by communicating with his captainHansie Cronje with an earpiece during matches. The practice was later banned.
He was appointed coach ofSouth Africa in 1994. Initially his team performed poorly, losing all six matches on his first outing in Pakistan.[11] However, in the next five years, South Africa won most of theirTest (10 out of 15 series) andOne Day International matches (73%).[7] However, the side failed to win either the1996 World Cup or the1999 World Cup, despite having the highest ODI success rate among international teams in that period. However his greatest success as a coach was when his team won the inaugural ICC champions trophy (then called Wills international cup or ICC Knockouts trophy).
At the 1996 tournament on theIndian subcontinent, his team won all their preliminary group matches before succumbing to theWest Indies in the quarter finals.
After this in 1998, South Africa won their first and to this day their only ICC tournament as they won the ICC Knockouts trophy held in Bangladesh. This was also the first team South Africa had played an ICC tournament final. Jacques Kallis was given the player of the tournament award in this tournament.
At the 1999 tournament, South Africa faced Australia in the final match of the Super Six round; Australia needed to win to qualify for the semifinals, whereas South Africa had already done so. Australia boasted a superior recent record in must-win matches against South Africa. Media speculation was focused on Woolmer's team being less adept at handling high pressure situations. In the 1997/98 Australian international season, Australia had lost all four of their qualifying matches against South Africa in a triangular tournament and conceded a 1–0 finals series lead, before recovering to take the series 2–1. The Super Six match saw Australia win the match in the lastover, afterHerschelle Gibbs dropped Australian captainSteve Waugh in a premature celebration of a catch. Waugh went on to score an unbeaten century and score the winning runs. The semifinal rematch saw a late Australian comeback culminate in a tie, when with match scores level, South African batsmenLance Klusener andAllan Donald had a mix up, with Donald dropping his bat and beingrun out. As a result, South Africa were eliminated due to their inferior performance in the earlier matches,[12] and Woolmer resigned.
Woolmer was a strong candidate to replaceDavid Lloyd as coach ofEngland in 1999 but wanted a break from cricket and was reluctant to lead England in a tour ofSouth Africa so soon after having relinquished the South African coaching job.
He later returned to Warwickshire, and gained attention when he called for the removal of a life ban on South African captainHansie Cronje for match-fixing. Woolmer spoke openly about Cronje and match fixing in an interview on the BBC TV programme "Panorama" in May 2001.[13] He then worked for theInternational Cricket Council in helping with cricket development in countries where the sport was not well established.[11]
He was appointed coach of thePakistan team in 2004. This came afterJaved Miandad was sacked when the Pakistanis conceded a 2–1 Test and 3–2 ODI series loss on home soil to arch rivalsIndia, their first series win there in two decades. He was feted when his team reversed the result in early 2005 on their return tour to India, drawing the Tests 1–1 and winning the ODI series 4–2. In 2005 Pakistan beat England in a home series immediately after England had beaten the Australian team in England to secure the Ashes. In the home series against India that followed, Woolmer's side were victorious in the Test series, winning it 1–0; however, the side lost the ODI series that followed 4–1. Woolmer's side then beat Sri Lanka 2–0 in a 3 ODI series and achieved a 3rd consecutive Test series win with a 1–0 win in a 2 test series with Sri Lanka.
In August 2006, on the eve ofPakistan'sTwenty20 international againstEngland inBristol, Woolmer was forced to defend his reputation when it was claimed Pakistani players lifted the seam of the ball when he was in charge of the team.[14] FormerInternational Cricket Council match refereeBarry Jarman alleged that during the 1997 triangular one-day tournament involvingSouth Africa,Zimbabwe andIndia, a match ball, still in Jarman's possession, that was confiscated after just 16 overs showed evidence of tampering by Woolmer's team. Woolmer could not recall any such incident and he denied advocating ball-tampering. He also indicated that he contacted the match officials from that game who also could not recall any such incident.[14]
Woolmer stated in 2006 that he believed that ball-tampering should be allowed in cricket and that a modification to existing laws should be made.[15]
On 18 March 2007 – the day after Pakistan were knocked out of the2007 World Cup, and three days before their final game of the tournament – Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room at theJamaica Pegasus Hotel inKingston, Jamaica. The initial report was that Woolmer had died of a heart attack. On 22 March, Jamaican police confirmed that an investigation had been launched because of the circumstances of Woolmer's death, based on a report by pathologist Ere Seshaiah that Woolmer had died ofasphyxia via manual strangulation. Deputy Police CommissionerMark Shields led the investigation.[16]
On 12 June 2007, Lucius Thomas, the commissioner of theJamaica Constabulary Force, announced that the investigation had concluded that Woolmer had died of natural causes, and was not murdered as indicated by the earlier pathologist's report. Three independent pathologists' reports commissioned by the police had found that the initial conclusion of manual strangulation was incorrect, and toxicology tests found no evidence of poisoning.[17] The findings of the pathologists, and ofMetropolitan Police detectives who had visited Jamaica to assist with the investigation, were reported in the weeks leading up to the announcement, which was widely expected by the time it was made. Reports suggested that Woolmer suffered from health problems including an enlarged heart anddiabetes, which may have contributed to his death.[18][19][20]
On 6 November, coroner Patrick Murphy asked for further tests to be carried out on samples taken from Woolmer's body following discrepancies in the toxicology reports by forensic scientists from the Caribbean and the UK.[21]
After hearing twenty-six days of evidence, the jury at the inquest returned anopen verdict, refusing to rule out the controversial strangulation theory put forward by Ere Seshaiah.[22]
In an interview withFox News, former South African cricketerClive Rice claimed that Woolmer was murdered by organised crime groups, saying "These mafia betting syndicates do not stop at anything and they do not care who gets in their way".[23]
Former Australian captainIan Chappell has also gone on record stating that he "doubts that he died of natural causes" and speculated that Woolmer may have been about to reveal "some misgivings".[24]
An article appearing in theJournal of Sport and Social Issues in 2010 suggested that there were links in the reporting of context surrounding Woolmer's death andIslamophobia in the British media.[25]
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Ntini was named in the original squad, but was replaced on 23 April 1999 by Dawson | ||
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