My membership pack for Trent Bridge arrived today

R.I.P. Bob Woolmer.

The best coach in the world (in my humble opinion).

Wollmer did get the best of many different teams so he was very good. Yorks have recently been after a new director of cricket & most people on a YCCC forum agreed when someone suggested Woolmer's name. (We got Martyn Moxon instead so did rather well). My guess is that Rts may follow 'u bears' & so is a bit biased. Woolmer's death was a crying shame though. From what's been said Woolmer's been unwell for a while, but decided to see the job through.

Well I do follow 'u bears' and i am biased admittedly. He was an instrumental part in our becoming the team of the 90's, particularly the one season where we nearly walked off with four trophies (we settled for the three in the end tho). He sounded like a man under incredible pressure in his last job and as you say, it is a crying shame.

Great. You'll soon be able to watch Notts. I always find the best way to stay fit at TB is to sit at the top of the Radcliffe Road stand (The best view in English cricket) & not use the lift. Thisis rather hard on the lungs when you carry the rubbish to games that I do. Oh yes, you never know there may even be the odd player born in Notts playing for them.

The police are now saying that the death is 'suspicious'. I hope this is just because it was unexpected as I can't see who'd want to hurt Woolmer never mind kill him. I'm the sort of person who believes on telling the truth about someone who's died, even if it isn't all good. (I upset a lot of people when Ben Hollioake died). But from what I've heard/seen Woolmer was one of the good guys as well as being a bloody good cricket coach.

The fact they are calling it suspicious doesn't necessarily mean they think someone else was involved - they could be suggesting that he topped himself, which I'd read in the paper as well!

Sad news about Woolmer.

Freddie Flintoff is 29, he's not been fit since the ashes win of 2005.

In truth he couldn't stay fit for long before 2005 either, in fact he was even told to sort his diet and drinking out by the england management before he became a national hero.

It's clear to everyone that he hasn't.

He should take a look at Ian Botham's test record....
under 30 - 4409 runs @ 36.14 13 centuries. 343 wickets @ 26.37 25 5-fors
over 30 - 791 runs @ 23.97 1 century. 40 wickets @ 45.8 2 5-fors.

Now that's a pretty rapid decline in anyone's book. If Flintoff doesn't get his act together he'll go the same way.

His batting has already lacked a lot of edge, and he has rarely looked like scoring centuries consistantly since the ashes of 05.

Will he go down in history as one THE great all rounders of all time, or will he be another in a long line of English sportsmen who never lived up to their talent because they prefered to piss it up against the wall?

I don't do many cricket posts, but I used to watch Kent a lot way back when. I remember Bob Woolmer very well. In fact met him a couple of times (and watched him at the St Lawrence in Canterbury many times), when I was an autograph-hunting kid. A nice guy.

I am slightly spooked by the "Was Bob Woolmer murdered?" stuff that is coming out.

And just to mention his cricketing prowess... apart from being a great bowler, he used to come in at number eight for Kent, as I recall. Sometimes seven. And was well capable of smashing the ball all over the place, with great style. I am actually quite upset.

i remember him more as a batsman who could bowl, after all he scored over 15,000 first class runs and never really bowled in test matches. he came in as high as 3 for england between 76-78, I think he may even have opened once or twice.

latest is reports of poison being found in his hotel room.

They are now saying that Woolmer was murdered by being strangled. wtf is going on. I can confidently predict that there will be thousands of conspiricy rumours unless the crime is solved quicky.

BBC report Here.

i'm stunned.
this is so sad and somehow it keeps getting worse.

I'm not the biggest cricket fan, but Woolmer seemed to be a really nice man.

I really feel for his family - what a horrible thing to happen to anyone.

I'm truly stunned by this. I was really hoping (in the nicest way possible, if this makes sense), that it would turn out to be "death by natural causes".

I'm far from being the list's biggest cricket fan, and to be honest only follow the game peripherally these days. But I do remember the guy well from his early days at Kent, and him taking the time to sign my autograph book and chat with me, when I must have been about 12, and he probably had better things to do.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/6490801.stm

There's a part of me that thinks "Serves you right. Shouldn't have sold out to sky tv." A bigger part of me is extremely sad about this.

Much as it grieves me to say this 'don't blaim Sky'. I dislike Murdoch as much as any man, but when the BBC used to have cricket you were lucky to get half of a home game. For away matches, forget it. With Sky I get to watch all England's games, wherever they are. They also screen other test matches which can be great. In this world cup one can even decide which one I want to watch (via the red button)

This was in the Telegraph today.

I didn't know that betting on cricket was that big on the Subcontinent.
The turnover being ten times that of Ladbrooks over here.

well they do have a combined population of over a billion people and there a competitive black market for vice and powerful criminal organisations that have their fingers many pies. the Indian mafia or the Mumbai underworld is also loving the Indian economic miracle....That's hundreds of millions of workers and a new middle class, that means drugs, gambling(fixing sports not in favor of the punter), prostition

what red star said, there were illegal bookmakers flourishing on the subcontinent long before sky sports started buying the rights for televised cricket.

........... from the BBC report on the England V Kenya match....

So some of the Barmy Army have turned up, good one.

I wish I could afford to travel to Australia and then the Caribbean. java script:emoticon(':(', 'smid_2')

And these are issues for the british police today?
That sounds dreadfully Enoch Powell, but it's what some of my mates said 25 years ago.
I was against them then, and want to be still against them.

Say what????????? its fuck all to do with Enoch Powell its about money.

: The O'Jays For The Love Of Money Lyrics

Money money money money, money (x6)
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it
Listen to me y'all, do things, do things, do bad things with it
You wanna do things, do things, do things, good things with it
Talk about cash money, money
Talk about cash money- dollar bills, yall

For the love of money
People will steal from their mother
For the love of money
People will rob their own brother
For the love of money
People can't even walk the street
Because they never know who in the world they're gonna beat
For that lean, mean, mean green
Almighty dollar, money

For the love of money
People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
For the love of money
People don't care who they hurt or beat
For the love of money
A woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight
Call it lean, mean, mean green

Almighty dollar

I know money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime
Money can drive some people out of their minds

Got to have it, I really need it
How many things have I heard you say
Some people really need it
How many things have I heard you say
Got to have it, I really need it
How many things have I heard you say
Lay down, lay down, a woman will lay down
For the love of money
All for the love of money
Don't let, don't let, don't let money rule you
For the love of money
Money can change people sometimes
Don't let, don't let, don't let money fool you
Money can fool people sometimes
People! Don't let money, don't let money change you,
it will keep on changing, changing up your mind.

What? What does gambling and ripping people off, perhaps killing cricket coaches, and corruption on a vast scale have to do with rivers of blood? Get a grip Damon. World sport - world corruption.

Yeah, sorry there folks - I think that was something to do with where I had lunch.

What again?! You do surprise me...


This Bob Woolmer story seems to get worse every day, when RS posted about it being suspicious, I didn't think for a second it would be murder but now... I just hope they find out who it was.

The BBC are now saying there may have to be a 2nd post mortum to prove it was murder. What is going on?

Its all very odd and what seems more strange to me is at every press conference I've heard, the policeman has been British - does Jamaica not have any of its own police force?

Apparently he was too clean for the Met.

Bad news for us POMS today. Unless they have a massive off day Australia are going to walk this tournament. Joking apart the Aus team's destruction of the Windies today was awesome.

The team currently rated as world 1 day no 1 (S.Africa) still try to throw away games. Today they nearly lost to Sri Lanka when even an Indian bookie would have given up.

Yes, I'll have to think up a better excuse next time. How about: ''I was driving back from Stoke all night, and must have a bit of white line fever?''

alternatively

"think before you drink before you post."

white line fever would be snorting, not drinking.

Good advice, but doing posts like that is the only way I get to chat to some of you people.

bad news for england, without even playing.

given that australia, south africa and sri lanka are more or less bound to go through, we really needed west indies to stick it into the new zealanders and then gyrate them around for a couple of hours. unfortunately it looks like happening the other way around.

freddie and the boys might as well go back out on the piss.

It isn't chatting when another poster just replies with "what the fuck are you talking about Damon?"

EEEK!

That is excellent!

has anyone seen the state of the pitch? it looks like a tractor's been driven down the middle of it. repeatedly.

mind you doesn't seem to stop sri lanka from putting together what looks like a handy score.

So England lost again, just (by 2runs ouch). Don't blame Pieterson or the lower order, who almost won it for us. We have got to replace out openers (Vaugahn & Joyce) NOW

vaughan has to stay for his captaincy value. joyce does nothing that strauss can't do, except score less runs at a slower pace. bell also scores too slowly for someone who can't convert a solid start. flintoff has done nothing with the bat since christ knows when.

which leaves a one paced collingwood and pietersen having to do the work of 6 or 7 people.

Ian Bell ain't even a one day player, they used to leave him out of the Warwick side all the time because he was so slow. Has that Joyce bloke hit a score against anyone decent yet?

joyce got a 100 against aussie in sydney.

but if you take out that innings and the ones against kenya and canada then he averages less than 16 in 14 innings. Strauss may have had a poor tour of oz, but he's far more likely than joyce to get a score.

I'd definitely have started Strauss. He like most of the batsman had a poor tour of Oz but was unfortunate with about three of his dismissals if my memory serves.
Any idea what happened to Dalrymple? I weren't his biggest fan but he seemed to hit a bit of form before the world cup and was promptly dropped.

bopara is a better bat and fielder. i think the selectors have got that one right.