Published: Mar 12, 2015, 12:38 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 12, 2015, 12:38 PM (IST)
It was March 17, 2007 – St Patrick’s Day, eight long years back when Ireland, playing their first ICC Cricket World Cup stunned Pakistan in a group match at Sabina Park, Jamaica. The cricketing world was shocked first to see India getting beaten by Bangladesh first and then their Asian neighbour Pakistan bowling out of the World Cup in the first round. Before they could recover from the shock of losing to Ireland, Pakistan’s then coach Bob Woolmer was found dead in the hotel room in Jamaica a day after his team’s exit. The death of the coach, who was a former English cricketer and won several accolades as South Africa’s coach, shocked the cricketing world.
Pakistan play Ireland once again in a World Cup game and this time at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday. With the clash comes the dreadful reminiscence of the World Cup’s most distressful moment eight years ago. Woolmer, 58, who was on prescription for diabetes, was lying naked on his back, and there was blood in his mouth and he appeared to have vomited on the walls.
When his death was made viral, it was assumed to be a heart attack but there were also suggestions he had committed suicide. In November 2007, a jury in Jamaica recorded a verdict on Woolmer’s death, after deciding that there was insufficient evidence of either a criminal act or natural causes.
It is very difficult to cope up with the passing away of a team’s coach at the mega event after a defeat and the Pakistani players did take time to become normal. Also didn’t help were the speculations surrounding the incident, with fingers of suspicion also being pointed at the national team as well. Veteran batsman Younis Khan, the one of the two members of that forgettable 2007 Pakistan squad still involved with the ongoing World Cup, admitted he still missed Woolmer.
“This is surely a very emotional game for me and all of us,” Khan was quoted in a report from Cricketcountry.com.
“I remember Bob a lot, he contributed so much to Pakistan cricket. Hope we can win this game and some more in the World Cup. There would be nothing better to dedicate to Bob’s memory,” he added.
Three current Irish players, skipper William Porterfield and the O’Brien brothers, Niall and Kevin, were also part of that epic match, as was Eoin Morgan, now England’s One-Day International (ODI) captain.
Allegations of match-fixing started surfacing and unsurprisingly, Woolmer’s death began to be associated with foul-play by the illegitimate betting mafia. The anonymity deepened when Mark Shields, the deputy police commissioner of Jamaica, declared the coach had been murdered.
Eminent sportswriter Osman Samiuddin, who wrote a latest book, ‘The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket’ described the Woolmer misfortune as a “shitstorm of a period for Pakistan”.
“Some days it still feels as if something died not only within Pakistan’s cricket but in the sport itself that day,” Samiuddin said.
“The lack of closure remains the still-open wound of that (2007) tournament,” he later added.
This year, Pakistan players will try their best to give the late Bob Woolmer a present against Ireland, and with latter being in good form lately, the contest promises to be a feisty battle!
