The man who saw tomorrow
The man who saw tomorrow
In late 2001, Bob Woolmer was out of a job. After years of working relentlessly in county cricket and for South Africa, one of the most creative and original coaches of his age was in need of a new challenge. He would find it in an unlikely source: the ICC, and its new position for a High Performance Manager, charged with improving leading Associate nations.
For a man with Woolmer’s drive, the role had an obvious limitation: it needed him to work with players of far lower quality than he was used to, in games that often barely pricked the cricketing world’s consciousness.
Yet there were significant attractions too. At a time when the ICC was in thrall to globalising the game, the role was lucrative. It would be an antidote to the relentless pressure and scrutiny Woolmer faced on the international circuit. The job was something like a “sabbatical” for Woolmer, says his friend and fellow coach Neil Burns, giving him a chance to reflect and develop his ideas away from the stresses of day-to-day coaching. “Bob was never one to rest, but sometimes a change of scenery is as good as a rest.”
The role also appealed to Woolmer in another way. “If ever a youngster could have been said to eat, drink and sleep cricket, then surely it was Bob Woolmer,” noted Wisden in 1976, when he was a Cricketer of the Year. This unbridled passion ran through much of what Woolmer had done since, from coaching at Avendale, a coloured club in South Africa, to innovative use of computer- and video analysis as South Africa coach.
These traits meant that he stood above the others, including several with international experience, who applied for the job. Andrew Eade, then global development manager at the ICC, interviewed the applicants for the new role. “The reason we went with Bob,” he recalls, “was his clear passion for developing cricket in the countries he would work with — he was a global citizen.”
That much came across in how Woolmer threw himself into the role. He led coaching courses for Associates in Lahore and Nairobi, and visited Uganda several times.
To be continued
Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/631244-the-man-who-saw-tomorrow