13 years ago, on this day, the cricketing world was in shock when they heard the news of Bob Woolmer’s death in West Indies. Initially, the news came out that the former coach of the Pakistan Cricket Team was murdered in his room, which stunned many cricketing enthusiasts but later in the interrogation, it is learnt that it was a natural death. Recalling the moment, Shoaib Malik and Inzamam-ul-Haq paid a touching tribute to their former coach.
Woolmer died on March 18, 2007, just a few hours after Pakistan’s shock defeat at the hands of minnows Ireland at the ICC World Cup in West Indies.
Pakistan was subsequently knocked out of the multi-national event but Woolmer’s untimely death left everyone stunned.
Malik, who one of the key players under Woolmer, took to social media to pay his respects to the former coach, while Inzamam dedicated an episode on his YouTube channel to the late coach.
Meanwhile, Inzamam-ul-Haq narrated a story saying that he has never seen such an organised coach for the Pakistan Cricket Team. Inzamam also recalled the golden moments between him and Bob Woolmer during their stint as skipper and the coach of the team.
“Woolmer and I spent time together in the Pakistan team in the capacity of coach and captain,” Inzamam said.
“We shared many great moments together. He was the most organised coach that I ever came across,” he added.
“I got to learn a lot from him. He never used to force things upon the selectors. He simply used to bring me the stats and never undermined the captain with respect to the selection of players,” Inzamam further added.
A day after their defeat to Ireland, Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room. There was investigation from both Scotland Yard and the Caribbean Police but none found any evidence that could lead to charges of murder and Woolmer was declared to have died by natural causes.
The Pakistani team, led by Inzamam, assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed and team manager Talat Al was also questioned on the case.
“When we lost the match against Ireland, we entered the dressing room very quietly. He asked me ‘what’s the plan?’ and I said ‘let’s talk tomorrow over breakfast’. But he never came for it. I went back to my room and got a call from someone asking to come to his room,” Inzamam maintained.
“Police had come to his floor and they didn’t allow me to go inside Woolmer’s room. He was taken to the hospital and soon news came that he was no more. The entire team was shocked. The doctors had declared the death as murder and we were all left stunned by it,” he stated.
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