Cricket World Rocked by Murder Mystery

March 23, 2007 — -- When the mighty Pakistan cricket team was humbled by lowly Ireland last weekend, angry fans took to the streets of the cricket crazy country: This defeat was arguably the biggest upset in the long history of the game.

Pakistani fans chanted "Shame, shame" and burnt effigies of the team's captain, Inzamam ul Haq. Hours later, the team's coach, Bob Woolmer, was found dead in his Jamaican hotel room.

Suicide? Natural causes? Murder? Thursday night the speculation was put to rest.

"The matter of Mr. Woolmer's death is now being treated by Jamaica Police as a case of murder," Karl Angell of the Jamaica Police told a packed news conference of journalists, who thought they were in the Caribbean to cover a festival of cricket and not a murder mystery.

Cause of death: "manual strangulation." There was no sign of forced entry into Woolmer's room and nothing had been stolen. Police believe he probably knew his killer or killers.

"Bob was a large man and, therefore, it would have taken some significant force to subdue him," according to Mark Shields, the island's deputy police commissioner. "We do not know how many people there were in the room."

Pakistan's players and management have been questioned and fingerprinted. Security camera video from the hotel is being analyzed and police are trying to work out who would want to kill the able and affable coach?

Perhaps a crooked gambler worried he was about to blow the lid off the murky world of cricket-match fixing?

"We don't know whether this was corruption related at this stage," one senior cricket official told The Times of London. In the past, cricketers have reportedly been approached by bookmakers and gamblers offering money for information on tactics and even cash incentives to throw games.

Woolmer had penned his memoirs about his life in cricket before he died. "He told too many people he was writing a book," another cricket official told The Times of London.

Another theory: A rabid fan attacked the coach, incensed by Pakistan's loss to Ireland and their premature ejection from the World Cup tournament.

"Well, I suppose there is always the possibility," Woolmer's widow, Gill, told reporters at the couple's home in South Africa. "I mean, some of the cricketing fraternity, fans are extremely volatile and passionate about the game."

This genteel game, born on the playing fields of England, was once held up as the epitome of fair play. The British phrase "It's just not cricket," means "It's just not fair."

The English spread the game throughout the British Empire to New Zealand, Australia, Southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent, where it has become something like a religion. And now, in Jamaica, it's become a matter of life and death.