Former England cricketer and Pakistan cricket team coach, Bob Woolmer was born Robert Andrew Woolmer on 14 May 1948 in India.

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 alaways 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.

It is sad, not least for his family, that such a talented cricketing man will be remembered, at least by those with a passing knowledge of the game, for the circumstances of his death and his association with Cronje, a man who let him down badly. For Woolmer to emerge from his partnership with Cronje with his reputation untainted was testimony to his honest nature. The essential point was that Woolmer would not have done anything to harm the game he loved. He liked his money - which Test cricketer of the mid-1970s did not, given how poor the remuneration was pre-Packer? - but he liked cricket even more.

If he had had any knowledge of Cronje's involvement in match-fixing during his time as coach of South Africa and if there had been any such approach to his Pakistan players, then he would surely have reported it to the board and, doubtless, to the police too. As a natural conciliator, Woolmer would alaways reason rather than react. He did not have a temper. At The Oval last year, he asked every Pakistan player to swear on oath that he had not tampered with the ball. "They all did and, as they are a religious bunch, I tended to believe them," he said shortly afterwards. "I alaways feel the game should continue but to accuse Pakistan of cheating brings tensions to the fore. This kind of decision is potentially inflammatory. I was torn between my principles and a desire to help the side." He was on the point of resigning as coach. In retrospect it was unfortunate he did not do so.

In his playing days and in his relationships with administrators and players when a coach Woolmer made friends easily, for all his obvious youthful ambition to play for England. Indeed, he was known in the Kent dressing room, which he joined in 1968, a time when the strongest side in the county's history was being forged, as 'Bobby England.' He was confident of his own ability, but it was submerged at first in a strong batting side. Woolmer's talents first became apparent in the one-day game, as a medium-paced swing bowler who would exert tight control in the middle of an innings with Derek Underwood at the other end. From 1975, when he made his Test debut for England, batting was his stronger suit.

Strange as it may seem now, there was something of the shop steward about him in his youth. He alaways liked the comfort of decent hotels, was keen on good food and wine and did not care for the ordinary accommodation that was the lot of the county cricketer in the 1970s. When Woolmer signed for Packer in 1977, he was at his peak as a batsman. His three Test centuries were scored against good Australian sides and David Gower, for one, felt he fulfilled his talent. A total of 19 Tests with an average of 33.09, might suggest otherwise. For whatever reason, when Woolmer returned to international cricket in 1980, he was not the same performer and his Test career was over by 1981. He hooked and cover drove as well as anybody in his era, yet was a little loose technically, especially early in an innings, his prominent left arm leading into the drive being executed well in front of his body.

Death during 2007 World Cup:

On 18 March 2007, Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. The initial report was that Woolmer had died of a heart attack. On 22 March, Jamaican police confirmed that a murder investigation had been launched due to the circumstances of Woolmer's death, based on a report by pathologist Dr. Ere Seshaiah that Woolmer had died of asphyxia via manual strangulation. Police suspected that the murderer may have been a Pakistani upset over Pakistan's recent defeat by Ireland in the World Cup.

On 6 November, coroner Patrick Murphy asked for further tests to be carried out on samples taken from Woolmer's body following discrepancies in the toxicology reports by forensic scientists from the Caribbean and the UK.

After hearing twenty-six days of evidence, the jury at the inquest returned an open verdict, refusing to rule out the controversial strangulation theory put forward by Dr. Ere Seshaiah