TIDE times aren't normally a topic of conversation in the build-up to a big cricket game, but then Bob Woolmer isn't your average cricket coach.

The former Kent and England's reputation as the best in world cricket has been built on his attention to detail, innovative training methods and his free thinking approach.

So you still have to take him seriously when he suggests that the when the tide comes in on Hove beach juist before 4pm today it might have an effect on what's going on half a mile inland where Sussex take on his South African team in the favourites' first warm-up match before the World Cup.

"Hove has always been interesting from the tide point of view," he said, only half-jokingly. "It sounds stupid but when I played here it always nipped around a bit. Scientists say that's rubbish but they haven't always got everything right, apart from Einstein of course, he was quite good."

You might not believe Woolmer's theory about tides and swinging cricket balls, but no one can question that his record as a coach stands comparison to anyone in world cricket today.

He filled Warwickshire's trophy room in the mid-90s when they won the Championship and four one-day competitions under his leadership and he has turned South Africa into the second best Test nation in the world and among the favourites to lift the World Cup.

Not much misses Woolmer's roving eye. He commands great respect from his players and peers and at Hove this week South Africa's build-up has been as thorough as ever.

From his own experience as an all-rounder with Kent in the 70s and 80s, Woolmer is well aware of the ten foot Hove slope and the difficulties it presents to bowlers. So he's had Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and co bowling up and down the hill it this week to get used to it again.

"I bowled here many times," he recalled. "A lot of bowlers prefer to bowl up the slope because they feel they get more bounce. You can rush into the wicket downhill so the trick ins not to try and hit the crease too hard because the slope naturally takes you into it."

South Africa face their three hardest group matches straight away. They meet India on Saturday week at Hove then face Sri Lanka and England before playing Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Woolmer's philosophy as he looks ahead is simple enough: "We want to win every one of them."

"We've played a lot of cricket recently so we're not really out of form, the warm-up games will help everyone get used to the conditions and we've prepared pretty hard.

"We will just go out and try and win every match, that's always been my way of thinking. The first three games are very tough and I'm not discounting Zimbabwe or Kenya, they might be underdogs but are improving all the time."

As ever, there are external pressures wherever South Africa play, the latest the controversy surrounding the serialisation this week of Donald's autobiography, White Lightning, which is due to be published on Monday.

And then there is the future of Woolmer himself. He is the choice of just about anyone with a voice in English cricket to succeed David Lloyd as coach of the national side, even though he has insisted that he will be taking a break from the game when he steps down at the end of the World Cup, apart from some broadcasting on the Test series between the two countries this winter.

Woolmer won't comment about the speculation apart from to confirm that he will delay any decision until the tournament has finished, a position the ECB are aware of.

"I said there would be external forces in England through either the media or other things, but we are not worried about that," he says.

"We are one unit, very strong and very committed to the winning the World Cup, all we are concentrating while we are here is that."

Even to the extent of studying the tide times.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.