Pakistan’s cricket team on Sunday paid tribute to Bob Woolmer at an emotional memorial service as speculation continued over the precise manner of the coach’s death.
The team joined 200 mourners at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore, the home of Pakistani cricket, in observing a minute’s silence and offering prayers for the ”shepherd” who had guided them until his apparent murder in Jamaica two weeks ago.
The service was held as four Scotland Yard detectives prepared to fly to Kingston to review the Jamaican investigation amid fresh speculation over the cause of death.
Woolmer (58) was found dead in his room at the Kingston Pegasus hotel on March 18 a day after Pakistan were ousted from the World Cup in a humiliating loss to Ireland. A postmortem examination concluded that he had been strangled, but doubt has since been cast on the verdict, with the latest theories including aconite poisoning and an accidental fall.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, who resigned as Pakistan’s captain after the team’s ill-fated World Cup campaign, offered flowers and spoke warmly about Woolmer.
”It is very hard to say something about a person who has been very close to you,” he said. ”The feelings I have are hard to explain. He was an excellent coach, but he was even a better human being. If anyone is grieved more over his death after his family, it is the Pakistani team.”
The chairperson of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Nasim Ashraf, lit candles and laid flowers in front of a portrait of the coach. ”He was like a shepherd who always looked after his flock,” he said.
Under Inzamam the team had become more devoutly Islamic and their prayer sessions excluded the coach, allegedly putting distance between him and the players.
Sunday’s service was inter-faith. The Catholic Archbishop of Lahore, Lawrence Saldanha, led the prayers. ”God rest you, Bob, God rest you, and until we meet again, goodbye,” he said.
Another memorial service is to be held tomorrow in Cape Town, South Africa, where the former England batsman lived with his wife, Gill. His body has remained in Kingston pending an inquest and possible second postmortem examination.
The Scotland Yard team, comprising three detectives and a crime scenes officer, will review the ongoing Jamaican police investigation’s forensic analysis, and its list of potential witnesses and suspects.
Pakistan, stung by conjecture that its team was involved in the death, plans to send two senior investigators to the island.
Until toxicology and blood tests are completed it will be unclear when Woolmer died between retiring to his room and being found the next morning. – Guardian Unlimited Â