Woolmer death termed 'suspicious'

BBC Online ^ | 21 March 2007 | BBC

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The death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer is being treated as suspicious, a Jamaican police spokesman has said. Woolmer, 58, died on Sunday after collapsing at his hotel hours after Pakistan's World Cup loss to Ireland.

Deputy commissioner Mark Shields said there was "now sufficient information to continue a full investigation".

That investigation will be "into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Woolmer which we are now treating as suspicious," added Shields.

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This is pretty insane. I thought the fact he died right after a shock loss was suspicious, but didn't really think that anyone would kill a man over a cricket match. And I still don't think a man would kill himself over a cricket match, certainly not this soon after the event (depression doesn't just jump up in an hour).

[GretchenM]

[Roy Tucker]

It just isn't cricket. Or is it?

[FostersExport]

I love that show!

[sukhoi-30mki]

Hard to say actually-the fact is that the Subcontinental mafia has very extensive interests in cricket,amongst other things.If the matches which Pakistan lost were "fixed"-then Woolmer may have threatened to spill the beans.Would have made sense bump him off.The hard reality is that some current player/officials of the Pakistani side have had previous allegations of match-fixing raised against them incl. the captain Inzamam Ul Haq,Mushtaq Ahmed.

[sukhoi-30mki]

1.Cops claim foul play in Bob death


http://www.cricketnext.com/news/woolmer-was-murdered-report/23841-13.html

2.Hamid Mir: Inzamam is the villain of the piece


http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/mar/21mir.htm

Inzy's reputation is going downhill bigtime.His chances to be recognised as amongst Pakistan's greatest players are going the same way as Mohd Azharuddin.

[FostersExport]

The last murder (if this was one, and that’s a big if) as a result of a sporting event that I know of was Andres Escobar, the Colombian soccer player killed for scoring an own goal in the World Cup, and that was rumoured to be because organised crime lords lost a lot of gambling money on Colombia’s unexpected early exit. I had a thought that this might be a similar situation.

However, that it happened so soon after the match itself gives me big doubts, especially if Inzamam is the one getting the flak.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Very hard to say anything at this point-Pakistani cricket seems all messed up.They were heading that way with the kind of direct control that Musharraf seems to have had on cricket appointing chairpersons to the PCB for the last 5 odd years.Inzamam while being a affable chap in public,did his position no good by his supposedly "dictatorial" approach,yet lacklustre captaincy & the very focussed Islamisation of the team under his watch.

[BaBaStooey]

Cricket Ping!
Let me know if you want on or off this list.
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Cricket is not soccer/football. It is a gentleman's game. Even though the country involved is Pakistan, I cannot believe that something suspicious is happening.

I do however feel that these coaches and players are put under enormous pressure and stress, travelling around the world nearly all year long playing high profile international matches, and in the case of places like India and Pakistan, find yourself being burned in effigy or called out by people in the government after a heartbreaking loss.

I have read that Bob wasn't feeling well for a few days leading up to this, that he may have had a diabetic condition, and the stress of losing and being eliminated certainly did not help. Perhaps it was something he thought wasn't serious and didn't seek any treatment for, and turned out to be deadly serious.

If he had been poisoned, or if some other shenanigans had gone on, I think the autopsy would have revealed that by now.

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"Cricket is not soccer/football. It is a gentleman's game."

With all do respect, I’m not sure that’s correct for the entire world.

In many parts of the world it seems to attract all the passion (and much of the good and bad that goes with it) that football does in Europe.

I hope it wasn’t murder, but I know cricket has its seedier side and I won’t rule it out.

[BaBaStooey]

I guess you can't rule it out, but my thoughts are more along the lines of hope that a sport like cricket is above those sort of thoughts.

Besides, if there were some sort of seedy mafia-style gambling stuff going on, wouldn't the players have been more likely targets?

[FostersExport]

I would have thought so too. It’s all very strange.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Players....not necessarily.For one,these folks are almost worshipped.Any act against them would force the Pakistani establishment to smash mafia elements.

Besides,players have almost always been accused of being in cahoots with the fixers given their high profile in society-almost on par with politicians & movie stars.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Things seem to get more ugly by the hour.....


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21425151-601,00.html

Police found marks on Woolmer's throat
Jon Pierik and Robert Craddock, St Kitts
March 22, 2007

POLICE are investigating whether former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was murdered after an autopsy revealed suspicious marks on his throat.
Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious and lying in his hotel bathroom near pools of blood, vomit and faeces on Sunday, less than 24 hours after Pakistan's shock World Cup loss to debutants Ireland.
That there was vomit in unusually high places on the walls indicated to police the former English Test batsman may have been involved in a struggle and, if so, may have known his assailant, given there was no evidence the door to his room had been tampered with.

Jamaican police will interview all members of Pakistan's World Cup squad as part of the murder investigation.

Investigators have also begun to trawl through security tapes from the Pegasus Hotel in Jamaica where the team is staying, with claims last night Woolmer was about to reveal the shady world of match-fixing in a new book called Discovering Cricket.
Former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz suggested that Woolmer may have been murdered by a betting syndicate.

"Has Woolmer carried with him to the grave dark secrets that could have brought ruin upon Pakistan's players?" he said. "Did he pay for being the unwitting receptacle of information that was never to be shared?"

Nawaz claimed that at least five bookies from Pakistan had landed in the West Indies when the World Cup began and had been in touch with Pakistani players.

Jamaican police have made it clear no one is above suspicion but Pakistani officials insist the team will still head home from the World Cup on Saturday.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields confirmed a murder investigation was under way.

"We have already informed the Woolmer family of these developments," he said. "Having met with the pathologists, our medical personnel and investigators, there is now sufficient information to continue a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Woolmer, which we are now treating as suspicious."

It has been revealed there were two marks on Woolmer's throat.

The 58-year-old ordered room service after returning to the hotel on Saturday night. He was found by a maid who called an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead soon after arriving at hospital.

The room in which he collapsed remains sealed off by police as investigators search for clues.

Hotel staff were last night banned from talking about the incident, which has left players questioning whether the World Cup should continue.

"There are many conspiracy theories," Pakistan media manager Perves Mir said. "The police are definitely treating it as suspicious. We cannot believe what has happened."

Early reports suggesting Woolmer was a diabetic have been proved false. Woolmer's wife Gill told CNN that her husband had not complained of any chest pain after the match.

Suspicions of foul play were raised early yesterday when drug and fingerprint experts were called in after the initial post-mortem failed to determine the cause of death.

Investigators called in a toxicologist and a histologist - a scientist who examines body tissue.

Pakistan, which cannot make the Super Eight phase, played its final match overnight against Zimbabwe. Team manager Talat Ali denied suggestions his squad would not be allowed to head home on Saturday.

[BaBaStooey]

Pakistan play Zimbabwe today.

[BaBaStooey]

In fact, right now. Here is the live scorecard:

http://usa.cricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/current/match/247473.html

[BaBaStooey]

[GretchenM]

I didn't start watching it till it went into syndication (typical for me). I'm enjoying it -- always did love Dick Van Dyke, and it's like going back 20 years as far as the cultural aspects, of the viewer not having to be shocked, gor-i-fied, and subjected to steamy sex scenes in order to follow the plot.

[design engineer]

Interesting info.. but I think his wife issued a statement that it wasnt a murder ?

[sukhoi-30mki]

Nope,I think she said that he didn'tave anything to do with matchfixing-she didn't say anything explicitly about murder(not that she may believe it either).