Bob Woolmer's Biography

Bob Woolmer was found dead on March 18 2007. Woolmer's death took place in the middle of the cricket World Cup. By March 22nd, police said they were treating his death as murder. However, on 12 June 2007, the Jamaican police changed their minds and announced that Bob Woolmer had actually died of natural causes.

Woolmer was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He played for Kent from 1968 until 1984.

In 1975 Bob Woolmer made his Test debut for England.

His second test saw a remarkable rearguard defence that saved the game for England who were following on against Australia.

Woolmer batted against the phenomenal Australian bowling attack, featuring Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, for eight and a half hours, ending with 149 runs, his highest score in Test cricket.

Bob Woolmer played his 19th and final Test against Australia in 1981. His Test batting record was 1,059 runs at an average of 33.09.

Arguably Woolmer would have notched up more Tests but he signed for Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in 1977 and his Test career was effectively ended when he joined the rebel South African tour of 1981-82 - as a result he was banned from Test cricket for three years.

Woolmer then became director of coaching at Warwickshire. He had success there as he did when he coached South Africa from 1994 until 1999.

Bob Woolmer then returned to Warwickshire, but, in 2004, he became coach of Pakistan - a position he held until his death.

In an interesting interview with the BBC, upon taking up the role of coach to Pakistan, Woolmer talked about his approach to coaching:

"Communication has always been the key word. It's not rocket science. The difficulty I will have is getting through to the guys who do not understand English or my sense of humour."

Bob Woolmer was the author of three books including an autobiography, Pirate and Rebel, published in 1984. Woolmer was reportedly writing another autobiographical work when he died.

The BBC has a transcript of Bob Woolmer's last media interview.

Bob Woolmer was married to (Shirley) Gillian Hall.

In November 2007, the BBC reported that a Jamaican inquest into the death of Bob Woolmer had returned an open verdict after failing to determine what killed him.