The cricket world was in a state of shock on Friday after it emerged that Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer was murdered in his hotel room after the team’s World Cup defeat to Ireland.
Jamaican police said that a post-mortem examination established that the former England player, who was also a former coach of South Africa, had died as a result of ”manual strangulation”.
”In these circumstances, the matter of Mr Woolmer’s death is now being treated as murder,” police commissioner Lucius Thomas said.
Police have meanwhile dismissed reports from Pakistan and India which said a suspect had been arrested in connection with the investigation.
The head of the Islamabad office of Pakistan’s Geo news channel, Hamid Mir, told India’s NDTV that a person had been taken into custody and that the suspect’s identity would soon be revealed.
Mir, a prominent investigative journalist, cited sources close the investigation.
However Jamaica’s deputy police commissioner Mark Shields told BBC Radio Five Live: ”I don’t know where that’s come from. That’s nonsense, as far as I’m concerned. There’s actually no truth in that.
”I can unequivocally dismiss that, unless someone’s given themselves up in India and we don’t know about it, but I think that’s highly unlikely.”
Shields said there had been no sign of forced entry into the Pakistan coach’s hotel room.
Woolmer (58) was found unconscious on Sunday, the day after his side’s shock elimination at the hands of Ireland at the World Cup, which is being played in the West Indies until April 28.
”That’s one of the interesting facts of the case. There’s no sign of any forced entry at all,” Shields said.
”Bob was a large man. It would have taken some significant force to subdue him,” he said, adding that police were ruling nothing out and had ”lots of lines of inquiry”.
”I have to say at this stage that it looks as if it may be somebody who’s somehow linked to him, because clearly he let somebody into his hotel room and it may be that he knew who that person was.”
There has been speculation that Woolmer’s death may be linked to gambling cartels. On Thursday, Jamaican police questioned and fingerprinted members of Pakistan’s cricket squad over the death.
Pakistan team spokesperson Pervez Jamil Mir said the players were ”in a state of shock” over the news that Woolmer had been killed.
Cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), said the World Cup would continue as planned to ”demonstrate that cricket cannot be put off by a cowardly criminal act”.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the entire cricket community was shocked by the death of the former England player.
‘He seemed to be such a nice man’
Meanwhile, Jamaicans reacted angrily on Thursday to the news of the murder.
Several evening talk shows on radio were flooded with calls from irate citizens condemning the murder and urging the police to go deep with their investigations.
”How could such a thing happen to Jamaica at a time like this,” said one woman.
”Jamaica is regarded as a place where murder occurs on a daily basis. The rest of the world is now going to say how violent Jamaica is.”
One caller felt Woolmer’s death would stain the event.
”No matter which team goes on to win the tournament, the death of Bob Woolmer will emerge as the single most eventful thing that happened to this World Cup,” the caller said.
”The manner in which he met his untimely death will also haunt us here in Jamaica. In all of this, I am hoping that no Jamaican is involved in Woolmer’s killing.
”If that were the case, it would be a sad day for Jamaica, which has a terrible reputation as a crime factory.”
Woolmer’s death was the talking point across the Jamaican capital.
Bartender Tedroy Jonas who serves at a popular nightclub east of Kingston, said that most of the patrons were discussing the Woolmer case.
”It was just Bob Woolmer, Bob Woolmer, Bob Woolmer,” Jonas said. ”This matter is the most interesting thing that has been talked about at this bar in ages.”
Gas station attendant Stacey Burton said that customers whom she served were all inquiring about the Woolmer murder.
”You heard what happened to the Pakistan cricket coach?,” Burton said she was asked by one customer.
”How could they have killed a man like that? He seemed to be such a nice man,” an elderly woman muttered as she walked past the busy petrol station.
Corruption?
The news of the murder has once again turned the spotlight on corruption in the game.
Cricket was rocked in 2000 when Delhi police launched a criminal investigation into alleged match-fixing involving former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje.
Police registered criminal cases against Cronje and three of his teammates after taping conversations with a bookmaker.
Cronje subsequently admitted to South Africa’s King Commission of Inquiry that he accepted thousands of dollars from illegal bookmakers to provide pitch and team information. He said he had never fixed a match.
Banned from cricket for life, Cronje died in a plane crash in 2002. He worked closely for five years with Woolmer, who was South Africa coach from 1994 to 1999.
Other bribery and corruption cases have been less high profile than Cronje’s.
Australian players Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were fined by their board for providing pitch and weather information in 1994 to an illegal bookmaker in India.
The findings of an Indian federal police investigation into corruption in cricket released in October 2000 named many leading players and said betting syndicates could be in touch with the criminal underworld.
An Indian cricket board internal investigation into that report led to life bans for former captain Mohammad Azharuddin and another international player, Ajay Sharma.
All-rounder Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Jadeja were suspended for five years. All have denied any wrongdoing.
Former Pakistan skipper Saleem Malik was also banned for life in 2000 over match-fixing allegations.
People bet millions of dollars on international cricket matches in the sub-continent, particularly in India and Pakistan.
Betting is illegal in India and police frequently break syndicates receiving bets on cricket matches. Few of the cases lead to conviction, however, due to lack of evidence.
The bribery issue reared its head again in January.
Indian police said they were investigating West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels over the player’s alleged attempt to pass confidential team information to an illegal bookmaker during a one-day international in Nagpur.
The ICC’s anti-corruption wing is investigating the case. Samuels is a member of the West Indies World Cup squad. – Reuters, Sapa-DPA