/ 9 May 2007

Woolmer probe still inconclusive, says investigator

A Pakistani investigator on Tuesday said that a probe into the cause of death of national cricket coach Bob Woolmer was still inconclusive.

Woolmer (58) was found dead in his Jamaican hotel room on March 18, the day after Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup by losing to minnows Ireland.

Pakistan sent two senior investigators to the West Indies to help investigations and one of them who returned last week said the cause of death of Woolmer was not yet confirmed.

”The investigation is still inconclusive and it would not be fair to comment on it at this stage,” police investigator Mir Zubair Mahmood told Agence France-Presse.

”Police have looked into all the aspects of the case and it now depends on the test reports sent to Scotland Yard to know about the cause of the death,” Mahmood said.

The official, who has probed the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, said that the pair had submitted a report to the Interior Ministry about their findings in Jamaica.

”Our scope was limited as it was Jamaica police who were conducting the investigation into the case,” he said.

Woolmer was on Friday cremated during a private family function in Cape Town, South Africa, six weeks after his corpse was discovered in his hotel room.

Woolmer’s death led to a fevered round of speculation. One theory is that his death was linked to match-fixing and illegal betting in cricket.

About 30 police investigators are working full time on the Woolmer case and more than 100 witness statements have already been taken. — Sapa-AFP