Woolmer: No wool over SA eyes
Jaco van der Merwe, Beeld
Chandigarh - Former South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer does not think his knowledge of the Proteas will give Pakistan a notable advantage when the teams meet in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in Mohali on Friday.
Woolmer, who used to know the birth date of every player in the SA team, is now the Pakistan coach.
"The only players that remain from the team that I coached are Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock," said Woolmer on Thursday.
"If there were six, they would have been in the majority and then I may have had divided loyalties," he joked.
Woolmer coached the SA team from 1994 to 1999 and during that time, the Proteas beat Pakistan 13 times on the trot.
The former England player and the late Hansie Cronjé, the SA captain at the time, moulded the Proteas into a feared team that won 73% of their one-day internationals while Woolmer was coach.
The innovative ideas of Woolmer and Cronjé made South Africa one of the top teams in the world.
Has refuted earpiece allegations
One of these was the earpiece that Cronjé wore during the 1999 World Cup tournament.
The role that the earpiece might have played in match-fixing has been questioned, but Woolmer refuted the allegations in an internet column.
He said the idea was laughable because Cronjé and Allan Donald had worn the earpieces for hardly an hour before they were instructed to remove them.
Kallis, Pollock, Gibbs, Ntini and Boucher all made their international debut under Woolmer.
Since then, they have played under four national coaches - Graham Ford, Eric Simons, Ray Jennings and Mickey Arthur.
Kallis said here on Thursday: "It's always nice to play against Bob and Pakistan.
"He knows a lot about some of our players, but it's been a long time since he coached us. We've had a lot of time to learn a few new tricks."
Proteas captain Graeme Smith said Woolmer could devise some plans against his team, but it was still up to the players to carry them out.
"I'm sure Bob knows players such as Boucher, Pollock and Kallis rather well, but it is a long time since he left South Africa.
"However, Bob is a canny coach. We will have to make sure we carry out our plans well.
"In the end, it is the players who take on each other, not the coaches," Smith said.
For the losers of Friday's match, it is the end of the tournament.
News source: www.news24.co.za
Posted by: www.SouthAfrica-CarHire.com
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