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Woolmer case closed; sigh of relief for Pak and embarrassment for statement makers

New Delhi, Thu, 14 Jun 2007 Nadeem Bhat

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June 14: Pakistan cricket fraternity took a sigh of relief when Jamaican police investigating Woolmer’s sudden death declared that the coach wasn’t a murder as speculated.

In an embarrassing U-turn, police reversed course and said Woolmer died of natural causes in direct contradiction to Seshaiah's findings, who still stands by his report.

“Pakistan's World Cup cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, almost certainly died of heart failure”, Jamaica police said on Wednesday.

After seeking the help from three independent pathologists from Britain, Canada and South Africa who reviewed an initial postmortem and toxicologist's report, claiming Bob was poisoned, confirming there were no poisons in the samples provided, the Jamaican police came up with a final conclusion that he was not, in fact, murdered.

“Determining the cause of death is the remit of the coroner but we are 99 percent sure that Woolmer died of heart failure,” police spokesman Karl Angell reportedly said.

The Pakistani players earlier had a horrible time when they were questioned; finger printed and had to give DNA tests so as to prove their innocence. They were only allowed to leave Kingston by authorities 11 days after Woolmer’s death as they were deemed as the prime suspects as per the earlier murder theory.

Ex-Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq who stepped down as captain during the World Cup shortly after Woolmer’s death said the scars will not go away as easily, as the players had been through a severe mental torture during the investigation in Kingston. He went on to say that suing the Jamaican police for messing up the case will do no good to what they have faced.

“What has happened has happened. The trauma we suffered cannot be erased from our memories,” Inzamam was quoted by Pakistani media.

“But in future I would definitely ask the board to handle such things more sensitively. For a while in Kingston we felt we were alone with no one to support us in trying circumstances.”

Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik has expressed contentment while saying, “I am just relieved that is all. Because at least now the truth is out and those people who pointed fingers at us should be ashamed of their conduct.”

When Woolmer’s body was found in Kingston hotel room, where Pakistani team was staying during their world cup expedition, contrasting reports about the death were put forward by everybody who is somebody. Even former Pakistani cricketer Sarfaraz Ahmad, more known for the controversial statements targeting Pakistani cricket team and establishment, claimed Woolmer was killed because he knew too much about match fixing racket.

Here in India, round the clock news channels beamed “exclusive” programmes with titles like “Coach ka qatil koun (who is the murderer of Coach)”, “Pakistani cricketer is a suspect” and many more like this.

The decision to close down the case has certainly come as a relief for the people directly related with Bob Woolmer and as embarrassment for those who shouted “murder….murder” over the roof tops.

The decision is likely to have a much bearing over the mad rush towards “exclusiveness” of the news as accepted even by BBC, who raised questions about the news archives related to the case.


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