Mar. 22
For a sport that breaks for tea and makes baseball seem fast-paced, cricket generates tremendous passion in Britain and its former colonies. Now, suspicions have been raised that someone might have killed the popular coach of Pakistan's team after a humiliating defeat in the Cricket World Cup.
Bob Woolmer 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.
Police say initial tests did not reveal how the 58-year-old Woolmer died, but his death has caused a sensation in the proper world of cricket.
An outspoken Pakistani player says the death was no accident and that gambling interests had it in for Woolmer. The coach's widow said he was depressed about losing the game, but would never have committed suicide. She speculated that an irate fan might have killed her husband.
"Some of the cricketing fraternity, fans, are extremely volatile and passionate about the game and what happens in the game," Gill Woolmer said Thursday in an interview from Cape Town, South Africa, with Britain's Sky TV. "So I suppose there is always the possibility."
Jamaican Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields, a former Scotland Yard detective, said local newspaper reports that Woolmer was strangled were mere speculation. Police said they were bringing in a coroner from Florida after initial post-mortem tests proved inconclusive.
Woolmer's death 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.
"I miss him very much in my own life because he was a very good man," Inzamam said.
For Pakistan, the victory came too late to advance further in the World Cup, which is held every four years, this year in the Caribbean. The Pakistanis planned to head home Saturday — if detectives allow them to leave.
Police fingerprinted team members Thursday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, where the squad was staying. Armed police were stationed inside and outside the hotel, where forensics experts earlier looked for evidence in Woolmer's 12th-floor room.
Team manager Talat Ali held up his hands to show ink on his fingers as he left a room after being fingerprinted.
Shields said no members of the team were considered suspects. After they were fingerprinted, the team members flew to Montego Bay on the western side of the island.
Played on expansive grass fields with spectators often enjoying picnic lunches as they watch, cricket matches can last five days, broken up by breaks for lunch and tea, though World Cup matches are limited to one day.
Gill Woolmer said her husband had indicated in an e-mail that he was depressed over Saturday's loss — but she added that he was depressed every time his players lost and did not play their best.
Pakistani player Sarfraz Nawaz has claimed, without providing evidence, that gambling interests killed Woolmer because he was about to blow the whistle on match fixing.
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, 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.
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