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| April 03, 2007 | Tuesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1428 |
Emotional tributes paid to Woolmer in memorial service
LAHORE, April 2: Bob Woolmer has left his undeniable print on Pakistan cricket and will never be forgotten by the players, retired Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said at a memorial service on Sunday.
“No one can ever really understand the void in the team he has left. He was a top-class coach and an even better human being. If anyone is grieved more over his death after his family, it is the Pakistani team,” Inzamam told the congregation.
Inzamam, accompanied by team-mates Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif, Mohammed Hafeez and Kamran Akmal, said Woolmer was an “excellent coach and above all things was an excellent human being.”
Candle lights burnt and floral wreaths were placed by a large portrait of Woolmer, smiling and wearing the Pakistan team T-shirt.
Some 200 people, including Governor of Punjab Khalid Maqbool, attended the service at the 100-year-old Sacred Heart Cathedral which was led by Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence Saldanha.
One of the wreaths was laid by the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board on behalf of President Pervez Musharraf.
Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his hotel room two weeks ago, a day after Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup after a shock defeat by Ireland.
Woolmer, Pakistan's coach since 2004, died later in hospital and police in Jamaica are treating his death as murder.
Archbishop Saldanha said his sudden and tragic death had plunged the entire nation into sadness and sorrow. “Our heartfelt condolences and the sympathies of every Pakistani went out to Woolmer's mourning wife and his relatives,” he added.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman, Dr Nasim Ashraf, described Woolmer's death “a terrible tragedy” and said that he was a “rock of stability” who lived for cricket and loved the sport.
“He was internationally known and was the first modern coach of cricket.
The world will follow his method and teachings,” he said.
The PCB has announced that the main hall of the national cricket academy in Lahore has been named after Woolmer who preferred to live and work from one room in the academy throughout his tenure in Pakistan although he was entitled to five-star accommodation.
Another memorial service is to be held tomorrow in Cape Town, South Africa, where the former England batsman lived with his wife, Gill. His body has remained in Kingston pending an inquest and possible second postmortem examination.
The Scotland Yard team, comprising three detectives and a crime scenes officer, will reach Kingston today to review the ongoing Jamaican police investigation's forensic analysis, and its list of potential witnesses and suspects. —Agencies
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