Farewell Bob

The news of Bob Woolmer's sudden demise was pretty shocking for me like everyone else. At a time when tempers were flaring high across the country over Pakistan's woeful ousting of the WC and the team was being cursed from left, right and center (The news channels playing their part too sadly), news suddenly broke of his demise and everyone went silent. More in shock than anything else; and then the tributes started pouring in. Ironic, but true. I felt real sad for the guy who had only one match to go as Pakistan's Coach (and I don't think he had plans to extend his contract). He was exposed to a lot of stress already coaching a mercurial Pakistani Cricket Team that undergoes more ups and downs then your regular Disneyland roller coaster! That said, I guess this loss was too hard to take for him and he finally gave in. Although it's hard to imagine someone as light-hearted and firm (from what his colleagues say) would give in to stress like this. Nevertheless, he might not have been successful at turning a team of prima donas into anything resembling professional cricketers but you can't fault him for not trying hard enough. As DAWN rightly points out in today's Sports section, he was the man who brought computerized coaching to Pakistani Cricket - a trend that could only be positive.

I agree wholeheartedly with Adil Najam' suggestion that National Stadium, Karachi should be renamed to Woolmer Stadium in honor of his services to Pakistan Cricket. Elsewhere on the blogosphere, Adnan Siddiqui has written a moving post on Woolmer entitled `Dear Bob! Please Forgive Us!`. There are plenty more tributes over at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan.

Farwell Bob! R.I.P.