- At last a book to create winners
- The one-stop shop for cricketing knowledge
- Born to bat (and bowl and field – and coach)
- The other side of Woolmer
- Bob the builder
- Taking a scientific approach to cricket
- Who said cricket is a man’s game?
- Tom Eaton’s role
- A global book with global appeal for a global game
At last a book designed to create winners
At last – the late Bob Woolmer’s much-anticipated life’s work and cricketing legacy is available to the world. A book designed to create winners.
Having a good all-rounder in a cricket team is pure gold. At last, in Bob Woolmer’s Art and Science of Cricket we have a book that will help coaches and cricketers create just that – all-rounders designed to be matchwinners...
Many coaching manuals concentrate on one aspect of the game, largely to the exclusion of others, so it’s great to have a book like this that combines coaching and playing techniques with those other skills without which we might as well all stay at home. Let’s face it, you need to be fit to make the most of the skills you have.
You also need to have the mental strength to stand up the opposition; after all, there’s no point having the skills, technique and fitness to face a pace attack if you’re paralysed with terror when the ace on the other team bowls you a blinder!
Yes, you need to know the ‘how’, but it’s as important to know the ‘why’ – because that motivates you to ‘do’.
So along with the book’s technical ‘recipes’ is a wealth of background information that will show you the ‘why’ as well.
The authors – Bob Woolmer and Professor Tim Noakes, household names in international cricket and sports science circles respectively – have a wealth of experience in their respective fields – and it shows!
The one-stop shop for cricketing knowledge
Worried about bowling, batting, keeping, fielding and other aspects of the game? Not any more – Woolmer covers all these in clear, clever detail, with Noakes providing a mountain of back-up information on their mental and physical aspects – biomechanical, medical and scientific knowledge that every player can use to enhance their value to a team, both now and in the future.
The style of writing is lively, the text is thorough, the images and illustrations clear, the tips from cricketing ‘greats’ will help you improve your game – and the anecdotes will make you wonder why a book like this has never been done before.
Born to bat (and bowl and field – and coach)
Bob Woolmer has passed on, but we can still hear his voice – through the book he co-authored with Professor Tim Noakes and Helen Moffett, and with input from Tom Eaton… Bob Woolmer's Art and Science of Cricket.
Woolmer’s contribution to cricket has been huge, and this book will ensure that his legacy has not died with him, but continues to grow.
It’s not really surprising he made such an impact – his father did his best to help – by putting a cricket bat into his cradle in India, with the wish that his infant son would use it well. It’s safe to say that Bob did his dad proud in this respect!
Woolmer did indeed ‘wield the willow’ – for Kent, England, and Kerry Packer’s groundbreaking World Series Cricket; and as a world-renowned coach and author.
This book is the definitive Bob Woolmer and a window to his unique insights on coaching, captaincy and game strategy.
The other side of Woolmer
There must be a thousand Makhaya Ntinis just waiting to be discovered, and if Bob Woolmer’s legacy is nurtured by those who are left behind, they will be.
One of Woolmer’s passions was finding and nurturing talent in South Africa’s disadvantaged and developing communities, and he did that for more than 20 years. He worked with township clubs to find South Africa’s cricketers of the future and help them make the journey from dusty township fields to the world of international cricket.
Woolmer was a humble man who believed he had a responsibility to pass on what he had learnt from his mentors, teammates, colleagues and players. His lifelong dream was to found a cricket academy dedicated to excellence and innovation in the sport, and he saw this book as an important first step.
Bob the builder
Whatever else he was, Bob Woolmer was first and foremost, a teacher. Even today, cricketers and teams on four continents look back and acknowledge his contribution to their success.
Woolmer was a key figure in building the success South Africa enjoyed following its return to international cricket. He was also behind a number of other successes, including stellar individuals such as Allan Donald, Brian Lara, Jonty Rhodes and Jacques Kallis, Wisden’s Cricketer of the Year for 2007. In fact, such was his humility and dedication to imparting his knowledge, that when he returned to his birthplace, the Indian sub-continent, to coach the Pakistan team, he performed one of international cricket’s most demanding jobs with rare grace and success, becoming a popular figure throughout the subcontinent.
After five years of coaching South Africa, he became the High Performance Manager for the International Cricket Council, but that bat in the cradle was still working its magic: he could not resist the opportunity to coach a national team, so it was off to Pakistan to nurture the raw talent he saw there.
Henry Ford said if you want something done, give it to a busy man, so it’s no surprise that in between his full-time coaching role, Woolmer somehow found time to write several successful books on cricket, as well as producing a popular series of coaching videos.
Taking a scientific approach to cricket
Professor Tim Noakes, co-author of Art and Science of Cricket is an A-rated scientist and veteran of over 70 marathons, and his internationally acclaimed bestseller, Lore of Running (known as the ‘runner’s Bible’) is in its fourth edition in South Africa and the US.
Noakes co-founded the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and is the Discovery Health Chair of Exercise and Sports Science at the University of Cape Town. He also directs the UCT/Medical Research Council Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Research Unit. And if that weren’t enough, he’s also a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, a founding member of the International Olympic Committee Science Academy and has received many awards for stellar research achievements
But if all his work in the medical field weren’t enough to keep him busy, Noakes is also a prolific writer, having penned both academic and popular works on the relation between sports, science and medicine.
Right now, he is helping pioneer a charter for exercise for young South Africans, in response to the decline in physical activity and its negative health implications.
Not surprisingly, Noakes is an avid cricket fan and takes a special interest in scientific research into the game.
Who said cricket is a man’s game?
Dr Helen Moffett is a freelance writer and academic. Regarded by many as one of South Africa’s best editors, she played a pivotal role in the production of Art and Science of Cricket.
Like many women, Moffett is passionate about cricket, and has lectured all over the world on the social, political and cultural dimensions of the game. She has also co-produced two documentaries on cricket.
Moffett is the first woman to have been invited to give the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and will be presenting this lecture in honour of Bob Woolmer.
As to the question posed in the title, ever taken a look at the number of women in the crowds watching cricket? There are thousands of them – millions worldwide, and many of them know more about the game than their male companions.
But few know more about it than Moffett.
Tom Eaton’s role
Sportswriter Tom Eaton knows the game inside out, and was Art and Science of Cricket’s editor and latterly its content consultant, where he played a crucial role in providing the link between the late Woolmer and the production team.
Eaton interviewed Woolmer many times in order to fill in the last holes in the text and the two developed a special rapport and common vision for the book that saw them planning the wonderful images used in the chapters on technique. After Woolmer’s death, Eaton was the only person who could exactly carry out Woolmer’s wishes in marrying these images with the text.
The coach’s death left the authors with no one to check the nitty-gritty cricketing details, so Eaton took over as a content consultant to ensure the final product reflected Woolmer’s wisdom as accurately and comprehensively as possible.
A global book with global appeal for a global game
Art and Science of Cricket is a monument to the wisdom of Bob Woolmer. The book manages to capture the late coach’s deep knowledge of the game of cricket in 672 pages packed with information, liberally complemented by images and illustrations.
The book has relevance wherever the game of cricket is enjoyed – from the world’s great cricketing nations to the up-and-coming developing nations that could one day become a force in world cricket. Apart from very detailed chapters on techniques, there is also a substantial chapter on the aspect of the game many other books don’t cover – mental skills.
But if you think it’s a book only for the experts, think again… whether you’re a player, coach or fan, this book will give you insights that will enable you to coach better, play better – and even enjoy watching the game more.
There are chapters that reveal Woolmer’s unique insights on coaching, captaincy and game strategy, as well as a groundbreaking chapter on how captains and coaches can make use of statistics to gain advantage.
Woolmer also offers his views on the future of the game – the issue of technology and umpiring and also that equally contentious subject, sledging.
Noakes’ substantial contribution in is the area of cutting-edge research on the science and medicine of cricket, including dramatic new findings on vision (who knows, you might even feel a twinge of sympathy for the umpire who misses an LBW, the bowler who nicks the ball to the slips, or the fielder who drops an easy catch).
The scientific aspects of the book also cover the question of injuries and their prevention.
