Pakistan hold ace in Woolmer

Every cricket coach owes a debt to Pakistan's coach Bob Woolmer. The Englishman has been one of the most successful of his kind for the last 15 years. His methods, once dismissed as cranky and left-field are now accepted practice.

When he used video cameras to film his own net practice as an England batsman in the late 1970s, he was told he was just being vain. When he sat watching games in front of a laptop, he was mocked for being a geek.

But where Woolmer led, the rest followed, from John Buchanan of Australia and England's Duncan Fletcher to Ireland's own Adrian Birrell. After a spell as coach of the all-conquering Warwickshire team of the 1990s he led the South Africa national team, a period defined by the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandals that rocked the game.

Woolmer is a big supporter of Ireland. (He has a personal connection: his son works in graphic design for the sports chain Elverys.) And he has been a big advocate of the Associate countries' involvement in the World Cup. He dismisses the naysayers as "utterly wrong" and is keen for Ireland to continue developing the game.

He is, however, keen to beat them, as coach of the box of tricks that is the Pakistan team, Ireland's next opponents. The cliché du jour is that Pakistan cricketers are like Dutch football teams: a collection of brilliant individuals who fail on the big occasions through lack of unity.

That they are talented is not in doubt. Mohammed Yousuf, Inzamam ul Haq and Shahid Afridi have few equals. But Pakistan cricket often seems on the verge of chaos, if not smack in the middle of it. The last few months alone have followed a familiar arc. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, two of the best bowlers in the world, failed tests for the drug nandrolone before Christmas and were banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Incredibly, this was overturned, leaving them available for the World Cup. Then, moments before the team flight to Jamaica, the pair went down with injuries. The threat of random tests here hung over their withdrawals.

Woolmer, 59, is fighting battles on all fronts, not least with former players such as Imran Khan and Javed Miandad who complain of lack of success.

"You only have to read the Pakistan press and the comments on the blogs to see how what it's like," he says. "I will not let them destroy my enthusiasm . . . I enjoy cricket and they don't.

"If Imran Khan was interested in Pakistan cricket he'd get off his high horse and come and help. He says I haven't found an opener in three years. I question anyone to find one when the selectors don't keep them in the team for three games.

"I have one objective and that is to help players who want to be helped. We all . . . have a duty to pass on what you know. Success is not about how many trophies you win; it is how much you enjoy the game."

Ireland's hopes rest on Woolmer having a bad day at the office today.