Globex Corporation Newsletter

Bob Woolmer
1948 - 2007

Jamaican police were awaiting the results of pathology tests on the Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer last night to discover if he was murdered.

Mr Woolmer, the former Kent and England all-rounder, was found dead on the floor of his hotel room in New Kingston on Sunday morning, hours after his team was knocked out of the World Cup by Ireland.

A Pakistani cricket fan holds out a sign in memory for the team coach Bob Woolmer, Jamaican police were awaiting the results of pathology tests on the Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer last night to discover if he was murdered
A Pakistani cricket fan holds out a sign in memory for the team coach Bob Woolmer

Rumours about how he died swept the Caribbean and the wider world of cricket yesterday after police said they were treating it as a suspicious death, raising the possibility of murder or suicide as well as natural causes.

The former Pakistan pace bowler Sarfraz Nawaz said Mr Woolmer had been murdered by the "match-fixing mafia". "The theory going around in West Indies police circles is that Woolmer might have been killed by those who wanted to silence him on the issue of match fixing," Mr Nawaz was reported as saying.

An initial autopsy on Mr Woolmer was inconclusive and further fluid and tissue samples were taken from the 58-year-old's body.

Yesterday afternoon, about a dozen forensic officers spent four hours examining Mr Woolmer's 12th floor hotel room. It is believed that there were pools of blood in the room and there were suspicions over vomit found high on the walls. Police refused to confirm or deny reports that marks had been found on Mr Woolmer's throat.

The forensic team left carrying several bags of evidence and a senior officer said the room was being treated as a "potential crime scene".

He added that other rooms in the hotel, which is the base for Pakistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the hosts West Indies, were also being looked at.
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It is unclear how many Pakistan team members have been questioned but detectives indicated that the players and their management may not be free to leave Jamaica as planned on Saturday. Mr Woolmer's widow Gill said from her home in South Africa that she did not believe her husband was the victim of a sinister plot connected with betting rackets and match-fixing. She told an Indian television station: "I don't see any conspiracy in his death.

" He had nothing to do with the match-fixing controversy and any such person being involved is highly unlikely. We never got any threats as far as I know." Her husband had finished two books, a general memoir and a coaching manual, but they were not close to publication.

Mrs Woolmer said she did not know what was in them but dismissed any likelihood that he was killed because of what he might reveal. She had not spoken to him after the defeat by Ireland, one of the sport's greatest upsets, but he had emailed her.

"He did mention that he was really depressed and could not believe how this could have happened. We discussed some personal issues apart from this."

Mrs Woolmer, who has sons Dale, 27, and Russell, 24, did not speak about the possibility of suicide but said that she could see from television pictures that her husband was very tired and under stress.

Mr Woolmer suffered from mild Type 2 diabetes and was taking anti-inflammatory drugs, probably for arthritis.

Mark Shields, the former Scotland Yard officer who is a deputy commissioner of the Jamaican police, said he was not suggesting it was murder, but was ruling nothing out. A minute's silence was held before Pakistan's final match.

# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 1:29 PM