Rain, No Play

Yesterday the Jamaican police finally made the embarrassing announcement that Bob Woolmer, the former Pakistan cricket coach, was not murdered after all, something that the Jamaica Gleaner reported a month earlier on May 13. The formal announcement was made by Commissioner of Police, Lucius Thomas, with the man who headed the misguided investigation, Mark Shields, by his side. Woolmer was found dead in his twelfth floor room at the Jamaica Pegasus on March 18 of this year. Four days later, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shields announced that Woolmer had been strangled. This conclusion was based entirely on the report of government pathologist Dr. Ere Seshaiah, which found broken bones in Woolmer's neck that were supposedly consistent with "asphyxia by manual strangulation".



From the start, there were (or should have been) questions about that conclusion, as there were no abrasions on Woolmer's neck. If he were strangled one would have expected that there would have been some marks on his neck. Questions were also raised as to how a man of almost 250 pounds could have been subdued and strangled by an attacker without him raising an alarm. It is very embarrassing from a Jamaican and regional perspective for the local reports to have been so erroneous that foreign pathology reports were needed to established the truth.  read more »

Murder By Cricket

ESPN.com has done a story about Bob Woolmer's murder in Jamaica during this World Cup. The article, by Patrick Hruby, who admittedly knew very little about cricket before the story, takes a look at the sport we love and its sordid underbelly from an outsider's point of view. The story is long, but explores Bob Woolmer, cricket, its politics and its fans. You may read it here.

In preparing this post, I realized that these two games on Friday - West Indies versus Ireland in Jamaica and India versus Sri Lanka in Trinidad, could be the key to the success of this World Cup. With the latest news of Bob Woolmer's death being a murder, it now seems that regardless of what happens on the cricket field, this World Cup will be forever remembered for his death. If there is any hope left of salvaging this World Cup, it now hangs on the outcome of these two matches.  read more »

Today, the Jamaican press pre-empted official police reports by announcing to the world that Bob Woolmer had been strangled. The shocking headlines that had followed days of wild speculation were confirmed late today by local police.  read more »

Jamaican police are treating the death of the late Pakistani coach, Bob Woolmer, as "suspicious". Accordingly, an investigation has been launched to decipher whether or not Woolmer's death was as a result of foul play.  read more »

Bob Woolmer, 58, Pakistan's coach, was found collapsed in his hotel room this morning. He was later taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies in Jamaica where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death is not immediately known, but blood and vomit were found on the floor of his hotel room. Woolmer's death comes the day after Pakistan's shock defeat to Ireland. He was a cricketing innovator, being one of the first to use computer technology to map out batsmen's weaknesses. Woolmer will be missed dearly in the cricketing fraternity. Hopefully irate fans in Pakistan will realise that Woolmer's death is a greater loss than any cricket match.