The Hindu : Sport : Bob Woolmer’s unkept promise

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Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007
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Bob Woolmer’s unkept promise

— PHOTO: AP

Bob Woolmer.

Kanpur: It was a promise unkept as Bob Woolmer, Kanpur’s son of the soil and now merely a subject of a coroner’s inquest in far away Kingston, did not return to the city of his birth.

The last time Pakistan came here in April 2005, Woolmer held the coaching reins and he promised to come back here before his mysterious death during the World Cup in the West Indies.

Instead of the bulky Englishman, the Pakistan players, who were conquered by Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team on Sunday, came with a leaner Australian, Geoff Lawson, in charge.

Memories

The last time Pakistan played here, Woolmer managed to take some time off his schedule and turn up at the Georgina McRobert Memorial Hospital, where he was born, to receive his birth certificate.

Drenched after a gruelling practice session, Woolmer inaugurated the maternity ward, which now bears his name — the Bob Woolmer Operation Theatre.

The choc-a-bloc ward witnessed a chaotic yet warm ceremony in which Woolmer was handed over the certificate which revealed he was born at 2.15 a.m. on May 14, 1948. A copy of it is still lying with the hospital authorities.

Despite the obvious discomfort, Woolmer sported a disarming smile and thanked everyone. He distributed fruits, flowers and bouquets among the patients before making a hasty exit, promising to return again, which he did not.

He also gifted a T-shirt — signed by the entire Pakistani squad — to the hospital authorities, requesting them to auction it and spend the proceeds for hospital purpose.

The Englishman died a mysterious death in a Kingston hotel in the middle of the World Cup and doubts still persist whether it was a natural death or there was any foul play in it.

His father, Charlie Woolmer, was a senior official with the Royale Exchange Assurance Company and played Ranji Trophy for the then United Province and was instrumental in establishing the Kanpur Sports Club.

Unmistakable feeling

Months have passed since Woolmer passed away but there is an unmistakable feeling about the Pakistan players that they have not yet recovered from the tragedy and its aftermath.

In the West Indies, they were grilled and fingerprinted and had to give DNA samples as part of the murder investigation.

Vice-captain Younis Khan, who considered the affable coach as a father figure, insisted in a media interaction in Delhi that the side had moved on and was trying to settle into a working relation with Lawson.

But he contradicted himself by dedicating his maiden one-day century against India to the deceased coach in Mohali. — PTI

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