Pakistani Cricket Coach Death Due to Strangulation

While folks in the US are busy watching March Madness, there's a little thing known as the cricket World Cup going on in Jamaica. The best cricket players in the world are at this event and it was getting quite a bit of coverage in France so the fact that the coach of the Pakistani team was found dead after the team's loss to Ireland was heavily reported. Yet, by the time I left France, the investigation was barely getting underway and I found this wire report that notes that it is now a murder investigation.

Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled in his hotel room after the team's shocking World Cup loss to Ireland, police said Thursday.

Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said in a statement that the pathologist report found Bob Woolmer's death was due to "asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation."

The statement, which was read by a police spokesman at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel where Woolmer was killed on Sunday, said police were now treating the case as a murder investigation. Police said they were reviewing security cameras at the hotel and seeking witnesses to the crime.

"It is our belief that those associated with or having access with Mr. Woolmer may have vital information to assist this inquiry," Thomas said in the statement.

Woolmer, 58, 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.

Pakistan cricketers were fingerprinted and interviewed on Thursday by police investigating his death. They were allowed to leave the hotel in the afternoon and travel to Montego Bay.

That the police are looking at this as a murder investigation is quite telling and one has to wonder who may be counted among the suspects. Was it someone involved in the team? A disgruntled fan? No one knows for sure at the moment and there are far more questions than answers at this point.

UPDATE:
It appears that some Pakistanis who were upset by the loss to Ireland burned effigies of the Pakistani team in Lahore, and apparently there were chants for the death of Pakistani cricket players and Woolmer as the team was losing the match.

The details coming out thus far suggest that he may have known his attacker since there was no sign of forced entry. There is also speculation that there was more than one assailant.

A large man with immense natural strength, Woolmer was more than capable of defending himself, which is why police have yet to rule out there being more than one attacker.

Woolmer was found in his underpants and the suspicion is the attack may have taken place early in the morning just before or just after he had a bath.

There was no sign of a struggle and nor was the door prized open, raising the suspicion that Woolmer knew his assailant.

Someone moved Woolmer's body from the bathroom, where there was vomit and faeces, to the lounge area.

When a cleaning lady heard no response to her knock at about 10am, she opened the door and saw Woolmer lying on the ground and immediately phoned reception.

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was alerted and raced to the room with team management.

Inzamam started trembling when he saw the body. He has barely slept since the incident and has told teammates he will never visit the West Indies again.

Five days after his death, Woolmer's room remains cordoned off.

There was also apparently an argument between Woolmer and some of the Pakistani players on the bus ride from the match to the hotel, but that petered out before the ride ended.

The role of match-fixing has not been ruled out either. The strange circumstances of Woolmer's death keep piling up.