Woolmer was devastated by shock World Cup defeat by AFP

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Player:	RA Woolmer
Event:	ICC World Cup 2006/07

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DateLine: 18th March 2007

 

Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, who died here on Sunday, told AFP late Saturday that he felt devastated by his team's stunning World Cup exit at the hands of Ireland.

 

"I am deeply hurt and cannot tell you how it is going to affect me," Woolmer told AFP, saying he would answer more questions on email later in the week.

 

The shock three-wicket defeat at Sabina Park condemned Pakistan, the 1992 world champions, to an early exit from the 2007 competition.

 

On Sunday, the 58-year-old was found unconscious on the floor of his hotel room here and taken to Kingston University hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

 

"I am shocked and badly hurt. We have lost a good coach and a good person," Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq told AFP.

 

Woolmer was last seen in public when he addressed the post-match media conference at Sabina Park.

 

Ironically, he talked of the stresses of the coaching job.

 

"Doing it internationally, it takes a toll on you - the endless travelling and the non-stop living out of hotels."

 

International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Malcolm Speed, speaking at the Beausejour Cricket Ground in St Lucia where England were playing Canada in a World Cup match, said: "We are all greatly saddened by Bob Woolmer's passing. He was a great cricket man. His life was devoted to cricket."

 

Speed added that the ICC were working with the Pakistan Cricket Board on paying an appropriate tribute to Woolmer during the World Cup.

 

Former England captain Mike Denness, an established Kent player when Woolmer broke into the county side in the late 1960s, said: "He was a great lad, a great motivator. He was a bit eccentric at times but it is a terrible loss. It really hits you very hard when someone you've played with passes away.

 

"I feel very sorry for his wife, Gill and his family. I don't know whether this is a result of of the pressure and tension of the World Cup but Pakistan obviously wanted to do as well as everyone else and he would feel for them.

 

"I remember going to his house in Cape Town and many years ago he showed me his work room. He had everything on computers even then. This was before the technology was readily available and he showed me how he was going to monitor things and study each player's performance.

 

"He was one of the first to really work on the reverse-sweep shot, he probably worked at it too much.

 

"He taught people to go back when they were playing it rather than go forward to give batsmen more room to play and he developed a lot of that."

 

Andrew Walpole, spokesman for the England team at the World Cup, said: "Our thoughts are with Bob's family. This has come as a huge shock to all of the England team.

 

"He was a figure who commanded great respect within world cricket and he will be sorely missed."

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)