Bob Woolmer, the 'computer coach'

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Mar 19 (Reuters) Bob Woolmer's death at 58 deprives cricket of one of its most innovative thinkers who became a pioneer in introducing modern technology into a centuries-old game.

The Pakistan coach was declared dead in hospital yesterday after he was found unconscious in his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica.

His team had crashed out of the World Cup less than 24 hours earlier after losing to debutants Ireland.

Ironically, part of his duties in a previous job had been to help develop the game in countries which did not play the game at elite test level. One of them was Ireland.

Born in India, Woolmer became one of the world's leading coaches on the back of a solid playing career in English county and test cricket.

A respected all rounder at first class level who played for Kent and South African provinces Natal and Western Province, Woolmer also played 19 tests and six one-day internationals for England between 1975 and 1981.

He was one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 1976, and he scored three test centuries at an average of 33.09.

Woolmer bowled medium paced swingers and was an elegant right-handed batsman with a free-flowing, fluent flourish.

GREATER MARK But it was as a coach, after his career petered out having joined the Kerry Packer breakaway cricketing revolution during the late 1970s, that Woolmer would leave a far greater mark on the game.

He soon became recognised as one of the more free-thinking coaches, a reputation he earned first with Warwickshire and then confirmed during his five years at the helm of the South African national team.

Woolmer almost single-handedly popularised the reverse sweep and his coaching methods required players to think beyond the accepted boundaries of the game. He was one of the first coaches to take a laptop computer into the dressing room.

His attention to detail was complete. To improve his wicketkeepers, for example, he would study the way football goalkeepers moved and pass on his findings.

THREE TROPHIES Warwickshire won three of the four domestic trophies on offer in England in 1994, the same year Woolmer left the county to take up the reins with South Africa.

MORE REUTERS PDS PM0613