• What you won’t read in the book…
• So who wrote what?
• Did Woolmer see the finished product?
• Why the long wait for the book, if it was already written?
• Why the change in publishers? And what about the rumours of secrets and scandals?
• But the press said the book was about match-fixing!
• Wasn’t the book stolen at some point?

What you won’t read in the book…

This is the story behind Art and Science of Cricket – who wrote what, and how the media got it all wrong at first!

This book had its genesis when Bob Woolmer and Tim Noakes first worked together as coach and medical advisor to the South African national cricket team in 1996. Noakes began pressing Woolmer to record his vast store of cricketing knowledge, and the latter was keen to include as much scientific insight into the game as possible.

But neither of them had the time to write such an ambitious book… Enter Helen Moffett, in 1997. Previously she had worked with Noakes on his running books – and she is also an avid cricket fan. So, when she heard what was being proposed, she took Woolmer’s coaching videos, as well as a truckload of his notes from a life of coaching, and used these to create a template for the technical chapters – batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping. After the 1999 World Cup, Woolmer was free to start work on these, and from 2001 onwards, he and Noakes extended what had already been written and wrote fresh material. Moffett, meanwhile, researched and wrote up the mental skills chapter.

In between all this, Moffett, Clive During (then project manager) and Tom Eaton (the editor) spent hours interviewing Woolmer. In doing so, they created a bank of taped conversations that were used to flesh out the strategy and coaching chapters.

A perfectionist in his writing as well as cricket, Woolmer rewrote some of the material as many as eight times!

So who wrote what?

All the authors read and edited each other’s work almost continuously for five years. However, the bulk of the book came from the taped interviews with Woolmer and his own writings.

In essence, Woolmer was responsible for the chapters on the techniques of cricket, strategy, captaincy and coaching and Noakes wrote the chapters on vision, statistics, the science of swing bowling, and much of the chapter on cricket science.

Moffett wrote the introduction and conclusion, the mental skills chapter, and the non-medical parts of the science chapter and after Woolmer’s death, the editor and content consultant, Tom Eaton, played a vital role in realising Woolmer’s vision for the photos and drawings, which they had planned together.

Did Woolmer see the finished product?

No, not quite – but almost… The book was 95% complete when Woolmer died; he had checked and approved the galleys with minor changes, and was eagerly awaiting the next set of proofs.

The only brand-new material added since Woolmer’s death is the chapter on statistics (which he and Noakes had discussed at length), the interview on video coaching with Gary Kirsten (which Woolmer had suggested), and the box on the forfeited Test match of August 2006. This page is based on notes on the last conversation Moffett had with Woolmer, when they discussed this Test, and how it should be represented in the material on umpiring.

Otherwise, the only content changes involved updating material (for instance, including mention of the 2007 World Cup).

Why the long wait for the book, if it was already written?

After Woolmer’s death, it soon became clear that the tone of the book would have to change. He was a famously humble man, who saw his book as a work in progress.

Throughout the book’s production, Woolmer had invited feedback and dialogue, declining to be the ‘star’ of his own book. Rather, he extolled the wisdom and experience of others. He also envisaged a very practical, no-frills book, in paperback, that would be tossed into a kitbag and taken to games and practices.

But, however much the surviving authors welcome feedback and constructive criticism, the fact is… this book is now Woolmer’s legacy – the distillation of a life spent playing and coaching cricket at every level of the game – and needed to be presented as such.

The authors and publishers wanted to give lovers of the game and admirers of Woolmer something beautiful and authoritative to treasure. They also wanted to place Bob Woolmer where he would not have wanted to be in life, but where he deserved to be – in the foreground.

Improved artwork was commissioned, as was a new cover – designed by Russell, Woolmer’s son. Everything needed to be of the highest quality – and that takes time.

Moreover, this is a substantial book – 672 pages – and when it found a new home, when Struik, a division of New Holland Publishing, bought the publishing rights from the previous publisher, New Africa Books, that change took time as well, as the production process needed to start afresh.

Why the change in publishers? And what about the rumours of secrets and scandals in the book?

Struik had been interested in buying the right to publish this work for some time (since well before Woolmer died), and in July 2007, they made New Africa Books an offer they could not refuse.

The Woolmer family and surviving authors have benefited from the shift to a trade publisher with the reach and resources to recraft the book as a fitting memorial to Woolmer.

As for the rumour that the contents of the book may have been a factor in Woolmer’s death – absolute nonsense!

The book is the result of the close collaboration of two experts in their respective fields, an expert writer and editor, and other contributors regarded as outstanding in their fields, and while it is a coaching manual without parallel, it does not make any scandalous claims, or tell any “secrets”.

What it does is tell you almost everything you need to know about becoming the best and most complete cricketer, coach or lover of the game you can be.

But the press said the book was about match-fixing!

Do you believe everything you read in the newspapers, see on TV, or hear on the radio?

They were all barking up the wrong tree – big-time. The word “match-fixing” doesn’t even occur in the book (well, we checked, and it does – once – in a paragraph on the history of cricket during the 18th century!).

Woolmer wrote about what he knew, and what he was passionate about – how much bottom hand to use when batting, how to cope with the “nervous nineties” or sledging, how to coach the reverse sweep, how to run a fielding drill, what boots a bowler should wear.

He had no interest in how gambling affected cricket, other than to deplore the negative consequences.

Wasn’t the book stolen at some point?

According to the Jamaican police, the proofs were couriered to Bob’s hotel in Jamaica during the 2007 World Cup – and then they disappeared.

Apparently, someone at the hotel had signed for the proofs, but the name wasn’t subsequently recognised by anyone at the hotel, and the proofs never reached Woolmer.

This led to great speculation that they had been stolen in an attempt to “suppress” the “explosive” contents.

Please, guys…writers and publishers live in today’s world. Gutenberg is dead and gone, and nowadays we use computers, and we make backups.

So, unless you also pinch a lot of hardware along with the manuscript, it is now just about impossible to steal a manuscript. By the time the proofs went missing, the contents had already been seen by all the authors, the editor, the project manager, the designer, the artist, the typesetter, the production manager, the PA who did the photocopying – so they were hardly under wraps. The book also existed in numerous cyber-forms.

All the publishers had to do to replace the stolen proofs was to hit “print”.

What’s most likely is that someone stole the parcel, hoping it contained something valuable or saleable.