Pakistan Cricket Coach Bob Woolmer Strangled
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| Thursday, March 22, 2007 |
Police believe that Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s cricket coach, was murdered.
Pakistan’s cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled in his hotel room after the team’s shocking World Cup loss to Ireland, police said Thursday. Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said in a statement that the pathologist report found Bob Woolmer’s death was due to “asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation.”
The statement, which was read by a police spokesman at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel where Woolmer died on Sunday, said police were now treating the case as a murder investigation. Police said they were seeking witnesses to the crime. “It is our belief that those associated with or having access with Mr. Woolmer may have vital information to assist this inquiry,” Thomas said in the statement.
Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his blood- and vomit-splattered hotel room in Jamaica on Sunday, a day after his team’s upset loss to Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day sealed Pakistan’s ouster from the tournament. He was later declared dead at a hospital.
Pakistan cricketers were fingerprinted and interviewed on Thursday by police investigating his death. They were allowed to leave the hotel in the afternoon and travel to Montego Bay. No arrests have been made and there are no suspects in the case, police said.
It was not clear if the team would be asked to remain in Jamaica pending the investigation, but Mark Shields, a deputy police commissioner at the press conference, said the players have pledged full cooperation whether they are on the Caribbean island or back home in Pakistan.
Earlier Thursday, Assistant Police Commissioner Les Green, formerly of Scotland Yard, said the team was fingerprinted as part of standard procedure “to eliminate persons from fingerprints which would be found in the room.” “After a thorough investigation, fingerprints not belonging to Mr. Woolmer were found in the room,” he told The Associated Press.
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Woolmer’s wife, Gill, said Thursday in an interview from South Africa with Britain’s Sky TV that she had not ruled out that her husband was murdered. “I mean some of the cricketing fraternity, fans are extremely volatile and passionate about the game and what happens in the game, and also a lot of it in Asia, so I suppose there is always the possibility that it could be that (murder),” she said.
Former Pakistani player Sarfraz Nawaz speculated earlier in the week that the coach was killed by gambling interests. But his widow said her husband had not recently mentioned anything about match fixing. He had been South Africa’s coach in the 1990s when the team’s captain, Hansie Cronje, admitted taking money to fix matches and was banned for life. Woolmer was never implicated.
Woolmer’s death has caused a sensation in the proper world of cricket and left the Pakistan national team in tatters and tears. Team captain Inzamam-ul-Haq announced his resignation and retirement from one-day cricket after Woolmer’s death, then led Pakistan to an emotional victory Wednesday against Zimbabwe. A fan at the match hoisted a sign saying: “Do it for Bob.”
The burly, bearded team captain left the field weeping after the victory he dedicated to Woolmer. “He’s not in this world now and every Pakistani and every cricket lover is sad,” he said.
Woolmer, who is British, was born in India, played for England and recently split his time between Pakistan and South Africa. He is being accorded hero status in Pakistan after his death. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he would be awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, or Star of Excellence, for his contribution to sport.
How awful.
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