Bob Woolmer (1948 – 2007) may no longer be with us, but his legacy to the game of cricket and cricket coaching is very real, and has the potential to endure for many decades to come

The Bob Woolmer Trust has been constituted to preserve and advance the aims and goals Bob Woolmer held most dear in his life.

These can be summed up as follows:

First and foremost, Bob envisaged two intertwined goals: for as many disadvantaged South African children as practically possible to gain access to quality coaching.

This would necessitate both extending cricket coaching to less privileged sectors of society, and improving overall standards of coaching. Bob was passionate about both these goals; his own experience as a volunteer coach in South Africa’s townships at the height of apartheid both imprinted on him the need for sport and sportsmanship in these communities, and also earned him the respect and affection of all sectors of his adopted country. He also believed that coaching involved an endless learning curve, with all players, from the humblest to the highest, benefiting from the highest possible standards of coaching. These are therefore the principle aims of the Trust.

Bob believed that he had a personal responsibility to pass on all he had learned from the great players, coaches and teachers he had been lucky enough to know and work with.

This attitude to cricket – one of humility and heritage – was typical of Bob, who believed in the need for each serious cricketer to also be a cricket historian and perpetual student of the game. The Trust, in building on the first goals mentioned above, would instil a spirit of coaching and cricketing that would advance these values.

Bob believed that it was essential to continue learning about, researching and exploring the multiple facets of a game he considered to be the most fascinating and rewarding on earth.

Bob always asked “Why” so as to be able to better perform and explain “How”. It was because of this that he was open to innovation in the game, as well as looking towards science, medicine and technology for these innovations. He also believed that the mind was the last frontier to be conquered in cricket, and that whichever nation achieved this, would dominate the world. The Trust adopts and supports Bob’s visionary attitude to cricket of the future.

The above goals and attitudes are clearly reflected in Bob Woolmer’s magnum opus, Bob Woolmer’s Art and Science of Cricket (New Holland Publishing, 2008), which forms an important first step towards securing Bob’s legacy. The mission of the Trust is to safeguard and advance this legacy, in line with the above three wishes Bob expressed in his life, and the principles expanded in his book.