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KARACHI/KINGSTON - The family of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach who died on Monday, have authorised local authorities in Kingston, Jamaica to carry out a post mortem, a Pakistan team official said today.
"His family is unable to come over to Kingston. But they have authorised the team's
trainer, Murray Stevenson to have the autopsy conducted," the team's assistant manager Asad Mustafa told Reuters over the telephone.
He said that once the post mortem was completed and the official report was released, Stevenson would send or fly with the body to Cape Town, Woolmer's hometown.
Pressure on coaches
The sudden death of Woolmer highlighted once again the huge pressures associated with top-level sport.
Woolmer, who died aged 58 in Kingston less than 24 hours after his team were knocked out of the World Cup, was certainly passionate about his job.
Television pictures at the end of Pakistan's shock defeat by Ireland on Sunday showed a visibly upset Woolmer slamming shut his laptop and stuffing objects into a bag before storming out of the room.
South Africa team manager Goolam Rajah, however, said that Woolmer, with whom he worked closely for many years, generally coped with the stress of the job well.
"Like any coach he was never happy to lose a game," Rajah told reporters. "But he knew how to manage the process of defeat or adversity.
"Whenever things weren't going well he would be quite composed. He would sit and talk through things. He didn't believe in doing things by half measures, and he was disappointed by the defeat yesterday.
"But I would have thought that he would have come out of it quite strongly in a few days time, he was that type of man."
Woolmer coached South Africa with great success between 1994 and 1999, working alongside Rajah.
"Bob was special," Rajah said.
"I worked with him, and I saw what he brought to the party in terms of coaching.
"I had the highest regard for his ability to coach an international team. He was very professional, very thorough."
Woolmer used to receive hundreds of emails from irate fans and would have been well aware of the reception awaiting him back in Pakistan, where is it not uncommon for players' houses to be stoned and their effigies burned after disappointing results.
Ironically, Woolmer was expected to walk away from the job in a few days, even though his contract did not run out until June 30.
"Travelling and being involved non-stop in hotels and so on takes its toll," he said following the shock loss to Ireland.
Large elements of cricket-crazy supporters, particularly in Asia, believe they own the coach of their national teams simply because the game means so much to them.
India coach Greg Chappell and Dav Whatmore of Bangladesh are in similar positions and the former was physically roughed up at an airport during a recent home series against West Indies.
International coaches have much more to worry about than just monitoring their players' form, organising practices and planning for the next test or one-day series.
They have the passions of millions of people in their hands and that can be a heavy burden to carry.
'We all owe debt to Woolmer'
Ireland coach Adrian Birrell said that the minor cricketing nations owed Bob Woolmer a debt of gratitude after his efforts to promote the sport around the world.
South African Birrell befriended the former England batsman during Woolmer's time as South Africa coach from 1994-1999, when Birrell was in charge at Eastern Province.
"Our paths crossed quite often," Birrell said. "I got to know him over the years and the world will miss a great cricket coach.
"He had a great playing career but I think he will be remembered for his contribution to coaching.
"It's ironic that he started the high performance programme (to improve the minor nations) and we were on the outside looking in at that stage.
Woolmer and Birrell shared a few thoughts after Saturday's match at Sabina Park and the Pakistan coach was not hiding behind excuses.
"He was very gracious in defeat and he didn't look for any excuses," Birrell said. "He just said they didn't play very well and we played very well.
"Physically, he did look down but he had just lost a mammoth game and was under immense pressure. It must have had an impact."
- REUTERS