Jamaican police open special investigation in the sudden death of coach Woolmer
The Globe and Mail, Thursday, March 22, 2007
SONYA FATAH
with a report from Associated Press
ISLAMABAD — Did Pakistan’s cricket coach have the skinny on the betting underworld? Was he going to do a tell-all in his coming book? Did a rabid fan angry about Pakistan’s dismissal from the World Cup want him dead? Or did Bob Woolmer die of shock because his boys were outclassed by a team considered to be far inferior?
As the Jamaican police opened a special investigation into the recent and sudden death of Woolmer, the rumour mill was abuzz and conspiracy theories were all the rage across Pakistan.
The news stunned the cricketing world and cast a pall of gloom over the World Cup. Cricket fans, commentators and analysts thought that Woolmer, who was 58 and suffered from health problems, had died of effects of stress and shock after his team’s loss to cricketing minnow Ireland last Saturday.
But when the Jamaican police started a full-scale investigation on Tuesday and whispers of murder spread through the dressing rooms, Pakistan’s passionate cricket following struggled to handle the news.
“This country is so crazy,” said Kamil Rahim, 25, a native of Karachi, “that anything is possible.”
“On one hand, I don’t think he was murdered because this is about Pakistan. And I think the world is just creating a spectacle because Pakistan is Pakistan and it’s entirely believable that in Pakistan a coach can be killed,” Rahim said.
But, like many Pakistanis, Rahim is also questioning the role of the organized crime element that runs the cricket betting underworld. “If he was murdered, it was basically in order to silence him, and fingers should probably be pointing at bookies,” Rahim said.
Woolmer was expected to complete his contract with the Pakistani team in April and settle down to write a book. It’s not clear what the content of his book might have been but it has been reported in the Pakistani press that Woolmer might have known quite a bit about the betting underworld.
A report on GEO TV, a private television channel, went a few steps further. It reminded viewers that Woolmer had coached the South African team when Hansie Cronje, who was barred from cricket after his shock admission to having fixed a match, was the captain. “[Cronje] was killed suddenly in a plane crash,” a voiceover stated, linking the two deaths. “Was that a suicide or a murder? We still don’t know. Now Mr. Woolmer is dead. Was his death a murder or a suicide?”
Many believe Cronje was soon to pen his knowledge of the betting underworld. The show suggested Woolmer was about to do the same.
“If it’s murder, it has to be because he had sensitive information that someone did not want to get out,” said Aleha Khan, 31, an enthusiastic cricket fan.
But many still believe there is much hype and speculation behind the police investigation.
“I think he was just devastated,” said one fan, who did not want to be identified. “I don’t think he was murdered. I think Bob Woolmer was a professional and the team’s disastrous performance shocked him. I think they are making too much of this.”
Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room in Kingston the morning after Pakistan’s humiliating loss to Ireland. He was taken to hospital, were he was declared dead. The results of an autopsy were inconclusive. But police opened a full-scale investigation and are awaiting results of a pathology test.
There were unconfirmed reports that there were marks on Woolmer’s neck, suggesting that someone had tried to strangle him.
Woolmer’s wife, Gill, appeared in an Indian television interview late yesterday and said she knew the death was being viewed as suspicious, but discounted conspiracy theories.
She also confirmed her husband had Type 2 diabetes, but was not on prescribed medication for it. She said he had been prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs.
Woolmer had sent her an e-mail message after the upset loss to Ireland, which had upset him, Gill told NDTV. “He e-mailed me the following morning,” she said. “He did mention that he was really depressed and could not believe how this could have happened.
“The Pakistani team’s poor performance affected him as any other big tournament that he lost as a coach,” she told NDTV. “He believed that what happened, happened. . . . one has to move on.”
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