On This Day: May 14, 1948 - Bob Woolmer was born

[Gotham Cronie]

One of Pakistan's most successful coaches, Bob Woolmer was born on this date.

Aside from bringing innovative ideas into the fold such as the use of laptops and an earpiece with a player on the field, it is his smile and demeanor with the fans and his team that will most be remembered of this great man.

In a land where foreign coaches are viewed with skepticism, he was able to take Pakistan to #2 in the test rankings, including achieving a drawn series in India with one of the weakest Pakistani sides to cross the border. He also got the best out of stars such as Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar which was shown in historic series such as the 2-0 win over freshly Ashes winners, England.

 

[Robert]

Bob had a very interesting career. Considered an all-rounder at County level, he scored three centuries in his nineteen tests. The best of these was a very slow 149* against a rampaging Lillee and Thomson to deny them a test win (how ENG could use a bit of that doggedness now).

A lover of South Africa, he went on the SAB 'rebel' tour of 1982 and was banned by the ICC thereafter.

As coach of Warwickshire, he won seven of the eight trophies available in 1994 and 1995 seasons.

Then he was an inspiring coach of SA when they were readmitted to the international scene.

And we know how well he did for PAK.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a> in 1948. The highly-respected and much-loved Bob Woolmer was born in Kanpur <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/2LgJGi9jGY">pic.twitter.com/2LgJGi9jGY</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1260828392808689673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
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[Junaids]

The greatest Indian coach of all time!

 

[Nikhil_cric]

The greatest Indian coach of all time!

Not sure he's even the best coach from Kanpur. Probably better than just about every English coach who ever existed though.

 

[MenInG]

He read the game like no other, and a few more years with Pakistan could have turned things around completely for us.