The Cricket World Cup has truly been overshadowed by the shocking news of the death of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistani cricket coach.
All deaths are unfortunate but for the sporting world, and significantly the Pakistani cricket team, it is difficult to imagine a darker hour.
Many were amazed that even the gutsy Woolmer would take on what has to be one of the highest pressure jobs and most difficult positions in sport – to manage a cricket team that enjoys and indeed suffers from the fanatical support of hundreds of millions of Pakistanis, intrinsically linked to the corrupt politics of the country and all this in addition to the nuances that working with Pakistani culture bring.
People blame Pakistanis for being conspiracy theorists but how can we not be when a year in the life of the Pakistani cricketing fraternity throws up a greater story-line than any Hollywood movie could dream of weaving? What other soap-opera could produce a team where religion, ego, dictatorships, skill, corruption, power, quality, pride, arrogance, grittiness, hedonism, cheating, drama and every other adjective you can imagine to describe the ups and downs of the Pakistani cricket team?
And all this handed on a plate to the quintessential Englishman Bob Woolmer to try and sort out. Good luck Bob everyone said at the time. Luck obviously would count for nothing.
Aside from the marvellous professional that he was, it was his human touch that was most impressive. Trust me, it’s not easy to go to foreign countries and cultures to ply your wares; it’s hardly ever going to be enough money to do so anyway. His acceptance of the ICC’s development manager role for the smaller non-cricket playing nations indicated it but it was his acceptance of the Pakistan position which really proved that, despite the cynics and his pay package at the time, this was someone who really was in love with the sport and wanted to hone and perfect the art in a country that has more talent than any other, despite the obvious dangers, threats and pressure applicable to a white Englishman foreigner.
Personally this was nothing new to me. Since the day he came visiting the Ilford Cricket Festival as the coach of Warwickshire at the time, and he and his team signed the bat of this young Essex cricket fan, you could see his real innocent, sincere and indeed childlike enthusiasm for the beautiful game and its development in the youth and all others not exposed to its finer and more honourable points. When I think of him now, I just feel like I lost a close friend; that is how much I read and followed his opinions and advice.
Anyone who kept up with his Cricinfo column and his commentary in the wider media recognised that this was a voice of unparalleled authority in the game coupled with a sense of calm, gentleness and ease that was just asking for thugs like Shoaib Akhtar and his cronies at the PCB would totally use and abuse.
I feel most of all sorry for him that apparently no-one from the practising Muslims in his team were successful in giving him the gift of faith before his death. I feel sorry for his family. I feel sorry for cricket. I feel sorry for sport for it has lost one of its greatest ever teachers and scholars.
But what now for Pakistan? A team in such disarray has been thrown almost impossibly into a greater state of chaos and anarchy. Bob Woolmer brought back a little quality, honour and unity to the Pakistan team. He raised the international profile of the team and indeed country, on the field with his skill and off the field with his positive statements on the unifying and religious nature of the team and their culture, despite how difficult it must have been for him.
Isn’t it unbelievable that it is the English foreigner coach who pays with his life, whether out of shock and stress or something even more sad, rather than all the corrupt politicians and under-performing players being held more accountable for their actions? Could it possibly be worse from a PR point of view that the martyr for the cause to rectify the Pakistani cricket team was a foreigner?
Who on Earth will take such a job now? What effect will this have on some of the players in the team? Where does Pakistani cricket go from here?
There is only one answer, and in fact, there has always only ever been one answer in Pakistan: Allahu A’lam.
All deaths are unfortunate but for the sporting world, and significantly the Pakistani cricket team, it is difficult to imagine a darker hour.
Many were amazed that even the gutsy Woolmer would take on what has to be one of the highest pressure jobs and most difficult positions in sport – to manage a cricket team that enjoys and indeed suffers from the fanatical support of hundreds of millions of Pakistanis, intrinsically linked to the corrupt politics of the country and all this in addition to the nuances that working with Pakistani culture bring.
People blame Pakistanis for being conspiracy theorists but how can we not be when a year in the life of the Pakistani cricketing fraternity throws up a greater story-line than any Hollywood movie could dream of weaving? What other soap-opera could produce a team where religion, ego, dictatorships, skill, corruption, power, quality, pride, arrogance, grittiness, hedonism, cheating, drama and every other adjective you can imagine to describe the ups and downs of the Pakistani cricket team?
And all this handed on a plate to the quintessential Englishman Bob Woolmer to try and sort out. Good luck Bob everyone said at the time. Luck obviously would count for nothing.
Aside from the marvellous professional that he was, it was his human touch that was most impressive. Trust me, it’s not easy to go to foreign countries and cultures to ply your wares; it’s hardly ever going to be enough money to do so anyway. His acceptance of the ICC’s development manager role for the smaller non-cricket playing nations indicated it but it was his acceptance of the Pakistan position which really proved that, despite the cynics and his pay package at the time, this was someone who really was in love with the sport and wanted to hone and perfect the art in a country that has more talent than any other, despite the obvious dangers, threats and pressure applicable to a white Englishman foreigner.
Personally this was nothing new to me. Since the day he came visiting the Ilford Cricket Festival as the coach of Warwickshire at the time, and he and his team signed the bat of this young Essex cricket fan, you could see his real innocent, sincere and indeed childlike enthusiasm for the beautiful game and its development in the youth and all others not exposed to its finer and more honourable points. When I think of him now, I just feel like I lost a close friend; that is how much I read and followed his opinions and advice.
Anyone who kept up with his Cricinfo column and his commentary in the wider media recognised that this was a voice of unparalleled authority in the game coupled with a sense of calm, gentleness and ease that was just asking for thugs like Shoaib Akhtar and his cronies at the PCB would totally use and abuse.
I feel most of all sorry for him that apparently no-one from the practising Muslims in his team were successful in giving him the gift of faith before his death. I feel sorry for his family. I feel sorry for cricket. I feel sorry for sport for it has lost one of its greatest ever teachers and scholars.
But what now for Pakistan? A team in such disarray has been thrown almost impossibly into a greater state of chaos and anarchy. Bob Woolmer brought back a little quality, honour and unity to the Pakistan team. He raised the international profile of the team and indeed country, on the field with his skill and off the field with his positive statements on the unifying and religious nature of the team and their culture, despite how difficult it must have been for him.
Isn’t it unbelievable that it is the English foreigner coach who pays with his life, whether out of shock and stress or something even more sad, rather than all the corrupt politicians and under-performing players being held more accountable for their actions? Could it possibly be worse from a PR point of view that the martyr for the cause to rectify the Pakistani cricket team was a foreigner?
Who on Earth will take such a job now? What effect will this have on some of the players in the team? Where does Pakistani cricket go from here?
There is only one answer, and in fact, there has always only ever been one answer in Pakistan: Allahu A’lam.
posted by Abu Eesa at 10:05 AM
4 Comments:
I always thought cricket was a game introduced by the British colonisers (like my dad and grandad)to waste and divert the time and energies of the natives into something totally useless. This is probably a type of cricket kufr. However this eloquent and informative article nearly converted me. Nearly. It certainly is the closest anyone has got me to show a vague interest in the game.
Apparently they're treating the death as suspicious.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/6473645.stm
I'm sorry to have been the bringer of this sad news. I knew he's been taken into hospital and I just switched on the radio to get an update of England's progress. Between every delivery they were talking very somberly about Bob Woolmer. It didn't take too long to figure out what had happened, but I just had to listen for another 10mins just to make sure I'd understood correctly.
As the police are now investigating, and if he is indeed found to have been murdered, then the murderer is not a cricket fan, least of all a human being.
Bob was not just Pakistan's coach. In fact I always associate him with South African cricket and the team he was with as they returned to the international arena. He was a brilliant person who contributed so much to the game and had the respect of everybody.
His loss is firstly a loss to his friends and family. But his loss is also a loss to the game. It is not possible to imagine a cricketing world without Bob Woolmer.
Subhanallah. As soon as I heard of the death, I knew deep down that he'd been murdered.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6482981.stm
I didn't want to look the idiot at the time but it's unbelievable how obvious it seemed that some criminal freak had killed Woolmer. Would anyone expect anything less from being involved with Pakistan??!
:-(
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