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Woolmer hits out at English authorities

Former South African cricket coach Bob Woolmer accused the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in his soon to be published biography of being "unreasonable" during last summer's negotiations to find a successor to David Lloyd as the new national coach.

Woolmer, who had enjoyed a successful five years as South Africa's coach, was at the top of the ECB's wanted list after Lloyd, nicknamed Bumblebee, announced he would be stepping down at the end of the World Cup. But Woolmer was eventually ruled out because he did not want to travel to London for an interview just before the epic World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston, and England instead chose Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher for the job.

"I was asked to attend a meeting in London in the same week as South Africa's World Cup semi-final with Australia, which put me in an impossible position," explained Woolmer in his new book, 'Woolmer on Cricket'.

"At a specially convened meeting with all the members of the (South African) management committee including Hansie Cronje, it was decided that I could not go for an interview with the ECB until after the World Cup.

"Eventually the ECB said they were prepared to wait until after the final, but by then it was too late for me.

"I couldn't believe the ECB could be so unreasonable as to ask me to leave my team two days before the semi-final of the World Cup, a tournament for which we had prepared over the last five years, to spend a day in London being interviewed for a job coaching England."

That stance by the ECB convinced Woolmer, who also wanted a complete break from the demands of international cricket, the time was not right to take on the challenge of restoring England's fortunes, claiming: "I decided enough was enough.

"I was far too emotionally involved in the (South African) team and I needed a proper break - I wanted to re-energise myself."

Woolmer claims Michael Cohen, the agent he appointed to represent him in the negotiations, was so annoyed at the ECB's stance that he angrily confronted Tim Lamb, the Board's chief executive.

"Michael became very frustrated with the shilly-shallying and vented his anger on Tim...when they met at a floodlit match after the World Cup, telling him that the negotiations with the ECB were the most inept he had ever been involved in during thirty years of top-level business."

The breakdown in negotiations allowed Woolmer to return to Warwickshire, where he had a highly-successful spell in the early 1990s, on a three-year contract.

The book also centres on South Africa's ultimately unsuccessful World Cup campaign, the behind-the scenes rows over the racially motivated "quota-system" and Woolmer's career to date.