Shocking and unbelievable! How could a person of 58 years of age just succumb to high tensions and stress in cricket? How could cricket take its toll on dedication and devotion so intense?

Sure, cricket itself is a game of glorious uncertainties. That means every player, or the ones connected to the game, has to be prepared to take the ups with the downs. One has to be real tough to be associated with this game of high drama, at least in these times.

Bob Woolmer, Pakistan team coach is no more with us, and the reason of his death is yet to be ascertained medically. But we, those who have gone through such tensions, should know the reason. The day prior to his death, with Pakistan having shamelessly lost to one of the minnows in the competition without putting up a fight, Woolmer did say that it was the worst day for him in cricket. The sorrow was understandable. All his efforts had gone down the drain in one fell stroke as his team lost to Ireland.

Mind you, it’s not just the defeat. It’s the insult heaped on you, by not only the fans, the administrators, media etc., but also the very team for which you sacrificed so much, worked hard to put all together, to get the best out of each and every one. And then, they just go away, leave you in the lurch.

As luck had it, I had to go through all stages filled with tension, trauma and drama at the highest level. As a player in the Mumbai (then Bombay) team, I was always kept on tenterhooks on selection in the eleven for almost every match till they made me the captain. As a Test player, I was lucky to play all the Tests in succession, thanks to Mr Nawab Pataudi, who had so much faith in me and then I became captain till I retired in 1974.

Yes, that was the year when I, as captain, suffered the most ignominious and humiliating defeat to England — a 0-3 drubbing. Earlier, I had won three series in-a-row, first against the West Indies in West Indies, second in England for the first time and then again against England, in 1972-73, back home. Till then I was considered the best captain, having won three series in-a-row, including two abroad.

What happened after 1974 episode? My parents got palpitations and high blood pressure. The public went mad, pelting stones at my little flat in Mumbai, like it happened to Mohammad Kaif some time back, and now to Dhoni in Ranchi. Later, my West Zone selection committee, comprising genuine Test players, dropped me from the eleven.

That was the end of my cricketing career. It didn’t bother me, because I was already one of the middle grade executives with the State Bank of India and did not need to beg to the selectors or the administrators for reconsideration as some current players do. I was quite happy with my job and whatever I had done for my country. It saved my heartbeats.

That is not the case now for certain. Too much money has come into the system and if somebody remains as sensitive and emotional as Mr Woolmer to public sentiments, he has had it. It’s nothing but too much stress, tension and hype. Its more when one is a coach. If everything starts going wrong, the public, the media start pointing fingers at you and it gets muddier and muddier.

I was asked to become a coach (cricket manager then) of the Indian team on a tour to South Africa after they relaxed their Apartheid policy in 1992. I was told by the then president of the BCCI that it was a goodwill tour, though termed as an official series to go into the records of ICC! In fact, one of the top players carried those instructions to the cult, and I had to tell him in the team meeting that if he doesn’t change his attitude, either he catches the first available flight home or I will. The BCCI didn’t take any cognisance of it, thankfully, and I was continued thereafter.

In 1996, we lost the World Cup series final at Kolkata and the public set fire to the stands burnt the stadium, but never ever belted the Indian players in disgust as they knew how the wicket betrayed us. Otherwise, India would have been in the final for sure.

This memory journey is to say that the whole scenario has changed. There is biog money as coaching is as professional as playing. Expectations are soaring, and somewhere everybody has forgotten that cricket remains that game of glorious certainties. And the need for a scapegoat is so much more.

Maybe coaches should think differently — if players don’t bother, why should they? Bob, you served world cricket so well as a cricketing brain and coach in general, and Pakistan in particular. Hats off to you, and may your soul rest in peace