'He had a great abilty to keep a perspective on things and that's what made him such a good coach' - Cullinan © Action Photographics

Bob Woolmer was a cricketing man 24-7. I played against him as a young student, still playing club cricket. He had enormous respect and passion for the game and was the first to admit that he was never a great player, but among the best to make the transition from being a player to a great coach. That's probably what he'll be remembered for the most.

It was great being around him, listening to him talk about the game. Not all of his ideas were that smart. He changed our game, changed our thinking and the way we played one-day cricket. We were a group of young boys on the international scene and quite frankly we were clueless. And after a tour to the subcontinent he decided right, we need to do something. His intervention came at the right time and that continued for many years. He shaped many careers, like Allan Donald and Jonty Rhodes. His relationship with Hansie Cronje was legendary and they really put South African cricket on the map after so many years.

I saw him in South Africa during the Pakistan tour and interviewed him on a regular basis for television. It was tough for him with the team not doing particularly well, but he kept his sense of humour. He had a great abilty to keep a perspective on things and that's what made him such a good coach. He understood players, what worked and didn't work with them. I remember him being tireless trying to find out about ways to make this a bigger and better game. That was his pursuit, even up until now when he had plans to set up a world-class academy in South Africa.

His lifelong work has been a cricket book. That was due to be released soon and it would have been a cricket encyclopedia, the A-Z of cricket basically

His lifelong work has been a cricket book. That was due to be released soon and it would have been a cricket encyclopedia, the A-Z of cricket basically. Sadly we won't see that being published. It would've been a wonderful legacy because of all his years in coaching, his travels across the world, having seen and spoken to the best. I just couldn't wait to get a copy of that. What a great tribute to one of cricket's great men.

Andrew Miller: He was a wonderful innovator wasn't he, talking about how naïve you were as a team. He brought a lot of new ideas and did that create the gap between yourselves and other teams?

His ideas were radical. One of the big issues we had to deal with was playing reverse swing, bowling changes and variations and the concept of using pinch hitters. He changed our game to a point where there was resistance. But he was the coach and we had to follow that, which we did and did well. We saw the fruits of his thinking. He was a hard-working coach, he would have taken yesterday's loss very personally. Behind that demeanor was a deeply-thinking man who was very serious about how he was perceived as a coach. I have no doubt he would have felt that Pakistan's performance was a reflection on his own coaching. He may have had the casual comments but I know he would have thought long and hard about their game.

AM: The other great loss in his cricketing career was the South Africa-Australia match in the [1999] World Cup semi-final. We have the two teams playing again and the perfect tribute from the South Africans would be a win against Australia.

There will be tributes. He was influential in shaping South African cricket, particularly with a guy like Jonty in fielding and they still worked very closely. It may go a long way to inspiring the side, and what a wonderful way to say 'thanks Bob'.