Woolmer wants Pakistan ‘not to be a predictable side’
From our correspondent
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Former England Test batsman and now a high profile coach, Bob Woolmer, joined the Pakistan team earlier this month armed with a big reputation, new cricket ideas and concepts and a few books and dictionaries on the Urdu language and Pakistan culture.
And in less than three weeks time, he has made it obvious to everyone in the team that he means business and he plans to stay for a long time as the Pakistan coach.
"His life revolves around cricket. And he is also making sincere efforts to understand our culture and start to pick up and understand the Urdu language," explained manager Haroon Rasheed on Monday.
"There is no doubt he (Woolmer) wants to stay around, wants results and wants to win the trust and confidence of the players. Already he has shown he is a thorough professional and I mean no disrespect to any of our former coaches," Haroon added.
Fortunately, Woolmer is no stranger to the Urdu language since as a young boy he stayed in Karachi for a while where his father was posted and he also witnessed Hanif Mohammad score those 499 runs at the Karachi Parsi Institute ground.
"He is keen to understand the Urdu words and wants to start conversing with the players in our language. He has brought a few books on how to translate English words into Urdu," Haroon said.
If any evidence is required that he plans to produce results with the Pakistan players on a long term basis just talk to some of the players as they have been left surprised by the fact that at every team meeting, Woolmer discusses the plans he has worked out for them six months ahead.
Having prepared separate profiles of each player after holding one to one meetings with them, Woolmer has now also set up a video footage library of every player and is keen they start to respond to him.
That he has joined the Pakistan team with a positive mind despite knowing how politicised the cricket set up is obvious from the two appearances he has made at press conferences in Colombo. These have been enough to show that he is also adept at communicating with the media.
Just how different the Englishman who coached South Africa for five long years is from his predecessor Javed Miandad was visible when at the press conference Woolmer was asked about the spate of no balls and wides bowled by the bowlers against Bangladesh and Hong Kong.
Flashback to March and April and one can recall just how quickly the panic buttons were pushed by Inzamam and Miandad when the same problems occurred against India and also how it led to calls for a bowling coach to be appointed with the team.
Haroon disclosed that Woolmer was also playing a big role in trying to improve the communication level and relations between the captain and the other players particularly Shoaib Akhtar.
Woolmer also made it clear at the conference he was not going to be drawn into a debate and comparisons between the jobs he has held with the South African and Pakistan teams.
The other major change in the team has been that then players visibly appear more keen to take part in the training sessions as trainer Murray Stevenson and the physio Darryn Lifson have combined with Woolmer to make all the training sessions cricket oriented.
While Stevenson is the man who keeps the players match fit, Lifson is the rehabilitation expert if an injury occurs to any player.
Perhaps while Woolmer realises his reputation is one the line with the Pakistan team apparently the players also have realised that if they can’t produce positive results under someone as reputed as Woolmer than there is a bleak future for Pakistan cricket.
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