POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING whether Pakistan’s cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, was murdered, as per a statement of the Pakistan Cricket Board. This has led to a whole lot of fresh speculations and has given the cricket world a new topic to chew over.

 

Firstly, the timing of the death is raising eyebrows. Woolmer, 58, died in hospital on Sunday after being found unconscious in his hotel room in Kingston - the day after Pakistan’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Ireland wiping them out of the World Cup.

 

Secondly, a cricket website cited unconfirmed reports of marks around Woolmer’s neck, suggesting he had been strangled.

 

And finally, Mark Shields, the deputy chief constable of the Jamaican police, confirmed yesterday that the autopsy was inconclusive. "But having met with the pathologists and other medical personnel, there is sufficient information to continue a full investigation into the circumstances of Woolmer’s death, which is now being treated as suspicious."

 

A spokesman for the Pakistan Cricket Board, Pervez Mir, said: "The police suspect that Woolmer may have been murdered." But he added: "Obviously ’suspicious’ could be anything at this moment - it could be something serious, it could be something not serious. We have a man who is down and we don’t know the reason why."

 

Initial reports suggested a massive heart attack; one blamed a mix of alcohol and prescription drugs. But amid swirling speculation, an Indian news website reported that Woolmer might have been killed to cover up match-fixing. It quoted the former Pakistani fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, who told reporters on Monday that certain players had helped fix the matches against the West Indies and Ireland.

 

What is of note is that in 2004, when Nawaz had made similar claims, Woolmer hit back and denied his team was involved in corruption. But as per some sources, Woolmer was to expose match-fixing in Pakistan, India and Srilanka in his book Discovering Cricket that he was writing.

 

With intriguing details emerging, from the Carribean polices’statement, to the circumstance of the death, to the claim of Sarfraz Nawaz, the world is waiting with bated breath for this mystery to be solved.

 

Also see
 ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 :  Reports and reviews