1. Robert Andrew Woolmer was an English cricket coach, cricketer, and a commentator.
34 Facts About Bob Woolmer
1. 2.
Bob Woolmer played in 19 Test matches and six One Day Internationals for the England cricket team and later coached South Africa, Warwickshire and Pakistan.
3.
On 18 March 2007, Bob Woolmer died suddenly in Jamaica, just a few hours after the Pakistan team's unexpected elimination at the hands of Ireland in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
4.
Bob Woolmer was born in the Georgina McRobert Memorial Hospital across the road from the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, India on 14 May 1948.
5.
Bob Woolmer's father was the cricketer Clarence Woolmer, who represented United Provinces in the Ranji Trophy.
6.
At the age of 10, Bob Woolmer witnessed Hanif Mohammad scoring 499, setting a world record for the highest score in first-class cricket.
7.
Bob Woolmer went to school in Kent, first at Yardley Court in Tonbridge and then The Skinners' School in Royal Tunbridge Wells.
8.
In 1968, at the age of 20, Bob Woolmer joined the Kent cricket staff and made his championship debut against Essex.
9.
Bob Woolmer played English county cricket for Kent, initially as an all-rounder.
10.
Bob Woolmer graduated to Test cricket with England in 1975 again, at first, as an all-rounder, having taken a hat-trick for MCC against the touring Australian cricket team with his fast-medium bowling.
11.
Bob Woolmer was a regular in England ODI cricket from 1972 to 1976.
12.
Bob Woolmer continued to have success with Kent, helping them to win the County Championship and the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1978, winning the man of the match award in the final of the latter.
13.
Bob Woolmer took part in the first rebel tour of South Africa of 1982, a move that effectively ended his international career.
14.
Bob Woolmer became involved in the Avendale Cricket Club in Athlone, Cape Town.
15.
Bob Woolmer preferred to join a 'coloured' club rather than a 'white' one in apartheid South Africa.
16.
Bob Woolmer was an inspiration to Avendale and was instrumental in assisting the club to grow and be successful.
17.
Bob Woolmer was the coach when South Africa won the 1998 ICC KnockOut Trophy, and in the same year the country won gold in the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
18.
Bob Woolmer returned to England in 1987 to coach the second eleven at Kent.
19.
Bob Woolmer went on to coach the Warwickshire County Cricket Club in 1991, the side winning the Natwest Trophy in 1993, and three out of four trophies contested the next year.
20.
Bob Woolmer continued his success by leading Warwickshire to Natwest and County Championship success in 1995, before taking on the Post of South African National Coach.
21.
Bob Woolmer is thought to be the only person to have witnessed both Brian Lara's innings of 501 not out against Durham in 1994 and Hanif Mohammad's 499 in Karachi in 1958.
22.
Bob Woolmer is credited with having made the reverse sweep a more popular shot for batsmen in the 1990s, as well as being one of the first to use computer analysis, and trying to adapt the knowledge of goalkeepers to wicketkeepers in cricket.
23.
Bob Woolmer later attracted attention at the 1999 World Cup by communicating with his captain Hansie Cronje with an earpiece during matches.
24.
Bob Woolmer was appointed coach of South Africa in 1994.
25.
Media speculation was focused on Bob Woolmer's team being less adept at handling high pressure situations.
26.
Bob Woolmer was a strong candidate to replace David Lloyd as coach of England in 1999 but wanted a break from cricket and was reluctant to lead England in a tour of South Africa so soon after having relinquished the South African coaching job.
27.
Bob Woolmer later returned to Warwickshire, and gained attention when he called for the removal of a life ban on South African captain Hansie Cronje for match-fixing.
28.
Bob Woolmer spoke openly about Cronje and match fixing in an interview on the BBC TV programme "Panorama" in May 2001.
29.
Bob Woolmer then worked for the International Cricket Council in helping with cricket development in countries where the sport was not well established.
30.
Bob Woolmer was appointed coach of the Pakistan team in 2004.
31.
Bob Woolmer indicated that he contacted the match officials from that game who could not recall any such incident.
32.
Bob 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.
33.
The initial report was that Bob Woolmer had died of a heart attack.
34.
On 12 June 2007, Lucius Thomas, the commissioner of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, announced that the investigation had concluded that Bob Woolmer had died of natural causes, and was not murdered as indicated by the earlier pathologist's report.