Woolmer calms frayed tempers

When Bob Woolmer took charge as coach of Pakistan, experts reckoned that his man-management skills would be as important as his cricketing nous to make a success of the job. On Wednesday, Woolmer got a first-hand experience of just how difficult managing Pakistan's cricketers could be, when he was forced to step in and prevent an altercation between Inzamam-ul-Haq and Shoaib Akhtar from going out of hand.

According to an AFP report, Woolmer and Haroon Rasheed, the team manager, sought to play down the incident, which happened during a training session. "It was some misunderstanding but Woolmer and I got the matter settled," Rasheed said, while Woolmer was equally diplomatic: "The Pakistan team is united and there are no differences with Shoaib and Inzamam."

Relations between Inzamam and Shoaib have been increasingly strained over the last few months, with reports of both players trading charges after Pakistan's defeat against India in the recent Test and one-day series. According to various newspaper reports, Shoaib was unhappy with the support he got from Inzamam, while Inzamam publicly blamed Shoaib's lacklustre performance for the defeat.

Woolmer took over from Javed Miandad as coach of the team after that series, and his first assignment will be the Asia Cup, which starts on July 16 in Sri Lanka.