Bob Woolmer's Art and Science of Cricket

The coach's coaching manual

Ivo Tennant

May 14, 2008

	'This is an account that details his love of the game and how to develop mental as well as technical strength' © Getty Images

At the time of his death during the World Cup last year, Bob Woolmer was working on two books: an update of his autobiography and a coaching manual. Amid the frenzied speculation that ensued over the following days, it was suggested that he might have been preparing a third tome, for page proofs allegedly had been stolen from his hotel room. It was also suggested that he had asked a journalist based on the sub-continent to write an account of his time spent coaching Pakistan, which was nearing a natural conclusion. The demise of any individual is routinely described as 'untimely' nowadays, but there can be no question that this death was exactly that. This much-liked man, with his generous nature and spirited view of human nature that bordered on naivety, did at least bequeath a legacy incorporating much of his knowledge of the game which will be published this August.

Woolmer's updated autobiography will never be printed, partly because he had submitted only a further 10,000 words to the version published in 2000 and had yet to commence writing about coaching Pakistan - a period, it should be mentioned, that fulfilled him, for he was working with gifted cricketers and spats with the likes of Shoaib Akhtar generally were swiftly resolved - but mainly because that was the wish of his widow, Gill, whose fortitude over the past months has been much admired, and of Michael Cohen, Woolmer's long-standing agent. That is not to suggest there was anything untoward about match-fixing in the e-mails he submitted not long before his death: that much I know because I was his ghost-writer - although it took quite a while for some sections of the media to accept this after the pathologist in Kingston declared he had been strangled. His coaching manual, on the other hand, was almost completed before his death in the early hours after Pakistan's defeat by Ireland on March 18 last year. It has been written in conjunction with Dr Tim Noakes, a sports scientist at the University of Cape Town, who had worked with the South African team during Woolmer's tenure as coach. This is the first such pairing of cricket expert and boffin for a coaching manual.

For anyone seeking lurid accounts of match-fixing or deals involving Hansie Cronje's leather jacket, this is not the place to go. In fact, insofar as Woolmer's life was concerned, there was never anywhere dodgy to go. Although he liked a good pay day as much as anyone else - he signed up for World Series Cricket and the breakaway tours to South Africa - he would never have harmed the game he loved through any corrupt action and he did not mix with shady individuals. He knew nothing about Cronje's underhand activities - and yet did not condone him for it. A braai at Woolmer's home in Pinelands on the outskirts of Cape Town would include the likes of Jacques Kallis, Mike Denness and Michael Owen-Smith, the long-serving and discreet cricket writer on the Cape Times, and now South Africa's media liaison. Respectable people, all. So this is an account that details his love of the game and how to develop mental as well as technical strength.

The title is Bob Woolmer's Art and Science of Cricket. It comprises four parts: discovering the game, technique, developing cricket and cricket science. Allan Donald, who spoke memorably at Woolmer's memorial service in Cape Town, Kallis and Jonty Rhodes, friends as well as outstanding performers, demonstrate some of the skills involved. Spin, swing, sledging (although no skill) all is there. Noakes, who co-founded the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and who also directs the Sports Medicine Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, brings this expertise to bear and comes up with findings on vision, the prevention of injury and how to unravel the intricacies of swing bowling. At £30, this is not a cheap book and hence some prominent serialisation would not go amiss for the publishers.

There is, perhaps, one other reason why purchasing it is important: Woolmer was not well-off and he leaves two sons, both of whom are still making their way in life, as well as his widow. His contract with Pakistan was about to expire and his thatched house, which, he would say, was worth no more than a lock-up garage in Birmingham on account of an indifferent exchange rate, was far from in the most sought-after area of Cape Town. He said this only partly in jest. The coaching centre he had long planned to be built in South Africa may yet come off, but the cancellation of a fund-raising match at Edgbaston this summer is indicative of how constricted this market is.

The market for this manual will be clubs - will MCC add to its definitive coaching manual once its cricket committee has studied this? - schools, libraries, enthusiasts and, of course, the considerable number of aficionados who knew or watched Woolmer from afar and who admired him as the most forward-thinking coach the game has ever nurtured.

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Players/Umpires

Bob Woolmer

Teams

Pakistan

South Africa