Pakistan cricketers head home after Woolmer murder by AFP

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Event:

ICC World Cup 2006/07

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DateLine: 24th March 2007

 

Pakistan's cricketers, shaken by the murder of coach Bob Woolmer, which followed their ignominious World Cup exit, were to head home Saturday as Jamaican police hunted for clues about the killing.

 

Forensics experts took DNA samples and fingerprints from the players, but police and Pakistani cricket officials downplayed any suggestion that they were suspects in the murder of their 58-year-old coach.

 

"Our priority is to take the players back to Pakistan," team manager Talat Ali said.

 

"Everyone in Pakistan is looking forward (to their return), especially the families of the players. They want the boys back in Pakistan as soon as possible."

 

No arrests have yet been made in connection with the strangling of Woolmer, a former England international who had coached the Pakistan team since 2004.

 

Woolmer died in hospital on Sunday after being found unconscious in his hotel room, just one day after a stunning loss to Ireland knocked Pakistan, the 1992 World Cup champions, out of the tournament.

 

Jamaican police announced Thursday that he was strangled, and have since suggested that he may have known his killer or killers, amid swirling rumours about the possibility that match-fixing gangs could have been involved.

 

Authorities in Jamaica, one of the Caribbean nations hosting World Cup matches, ordered that an inquest be held before a jury as soon as possible, local media reported Friday, meaning that Woolmer's body would stay put.

 

Pakistan has dispatched a senior diplomat from Washington to liaise with Jamaican police. Meanwhile, team physiotherapist Darryn Lifson and trainer Murray Stevenson, both South Africans, said they would remain in Kingston.

 

"We promised the family to stay until everything is sorted out," Lifson told AFP, adding that authorities were keeping Woolmer's family informed of all developments in the case.

 

Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields said the team members were "not being treated any differently from anyone else at this stage."

 

"It is important to eliminate as well as identify suspects," he told TVJ television.

 

In an interview with the BBC, Shields suggested that Woolmer's killer may not have been a stranger, and that more than one person may have been involved.

 

"Clearly he let somebody into his hotel room and it may be that he knew who that person was," Shields said.

 

Pakistan Cricket Board chief Naseem Ashraf dismissed the notion that any of the players could have been involved in the crime.

 

"No, there is no suspicion on the Pakistan team. This is ridiculous," Ashraf told AFP.

 

"The Pakistani team were at the hotel like everyone else (and) they gave their statements -- they were never interrogated. The whole team is under a lot of trauma and stress."

 

The players were to leave Jamaica on Saturday after two days in Montego Bay, where Ashraf said they had been taken out of fears for their safety.

 

Ashraf also rejected suggestions that Woolmer may have been the victim of criminal gangs who were fearful he could expose their match-fixing activity in a book he was planning to write.

 

"There is no truth in the reports that Bob was killed by gambling mafia," he told a press conference in Islamabad, a theory also rejected by Woolmer's family.

 

"Contrary to reports, we can confirm there is nothing in any book Bob has written that would explain this situation and there were no threats received," said a statement issued by Woolmer's wife Gill and sons Dale and Russell from Cape Town.

 

Woolmer was coach of South Africa when their former captain Hansie Cronje was bought off by bookmakers in 1996, but was never alleged to have been involved himself.

 

England captain Michael Vaughan said in an interview published Saturday that he thought match-fixing was still happening.

 

Asked by The Sun newspaper whether he believed match-rigging goes on in the world game, Vaughan said: "If I'm honest, yes, I think it does."

 

Since taking over the Pakistan team in 2004, Woolmer had talked of the stresses of managing one of the most volatile teams in world cricket.

 

His family said Woolmer would have wanted the sport's showpiece tournament to go on.

 

"He gave his life to the service of cricket and cricketers and endeared himself to anyone who came into contact with him," the statement said.

 

"Bob would definitely have wanted the World Cup to continue."

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)