WOOLMER DEATH “MURDER”

23-03-2007

Jamaican police are now treating the death of the Pakistan and former Warwickshire coach Bob Woolmer as murder.

Woolmer was found slumped in his Kingston hotel room last Sunday after his team's shock defeat to Ireland.

Early reports talked of his diabetes and shortness of breath, and there were suggestions that these factors combined with the stress of losing to unfancied opponents totrigger a heart attack.

Now though it's emerged that Woolmer had been killed - or in the words of the island's deputy chief commissioner Mark Shields ``was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation.

He added: “It would take some force because Bob was a large man and therefore it would have taken some significant force in which to subdue him and cause strangulation.

“It could be one or more people that are involved in this murder.''

There have been suggestions - so far unsubstantiated - that Woolmer's death may have been connected with match fixers.

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon who heads cricket's anti-corruption unit has now flown to Jamaica to offer his assistance.