Re: Inzi/Woolmer clash
Death of a decent man
By Andrew Alderson, and Simon Hart and Philip Sherwell in Kingston, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:56am GMT 25/03/2007
The last moments of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan cricket team coach murdered in extraordinary circumstances in Jamaica, remain shrouded in mystery. Now, as the sport’s links to corruption are examined, police are investigating whether an argument with his players may have played a part in the affair
Bob Woolmer was in a dark mood as he returned to the Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, Jamaica, last Saturday evening, after one of the most disastrous days of his long and distinguished sporting career. As he stepped off the team bus at 6.30pm, he brushed past cricket supporters and the local Rastafarian drug-pushers who hover outside the hotel to offer “ganja”, “white powder” or a visit to the nearby “titty bar”.
The precise movements of Mr Woolmer over the next hour are not known but, at about 7.30pm, he walked through the bustling lobby, entered the lift and pushed the button for the 12th floor of the 17-storey, 300-room hotel in the heart of the city’s commercial district.
During a career in cricket spanning 40 years, the former England international had enjoyed many successes on and off the pitch, but the events played out that day at the Sabina Park cricket ground were as grim as any he could recall.
Pakistan, the national side he had coached for the past three years, had been humiliated by Ireland, one of the “minnows” of the Cricket World Cup. Pakistan has long been one of the most formidable forces in international cricket, while the Irish team of part-timers - spurred on by the fact that it was St Patrick’s Day - seemed to be in the Caribbean only to make up the numbers.
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At the press conference after the match, Mr Woolmer had, typically, put on a brave face in front of the media, telling reporters that cricket was “only a game”. Yet those who knew him well could detect that the dents to his pride and professionalism meant he was in the depths of despair. “I am sure he was hurting inside much more than he let on,” said Richard Sydenham, a cricket journalist, who has been friends with Mr Woolmer for more than a decade.
It is thought that Mr Woolmer did not leave his room - number 12-374 - for the rest of Saturday evening, apparently ordering dinner and a drink from room service at about 9pm before turning in for the night. Yet, possibly troubled by Pakistan’s embarrassing exit from the World Cup and his own uncertain future, it seems he slept badly.
For at 3.12am local time, he pressed the “send” button on his laptop and dispatched an email to his wife, Gill, who, along with the wives and girlfriends of players and staff, had not been permitted to join the squad during the early stages of the tournament. In it, he poured out his feelings of disappointment at the result of the match against Ireland and dealt with some family matters, but there was nothing to shed any light on what would happen about seven hours later.
Later, probably at about 10am on Sunday morning, a man or men entered Mr Woolmer’s room. There was no sign of a break-in, so police suspect that there was a knock on the door and that Mr Woolmer let in the man or men, possibly because he knew him or them.
Only the killer or killers know what happened next. But, at some point, things turned violent and, after apparently forcing Mr Woolmer into the bathroom, the coach was attacked and strangled to death. A bone in his neck was broken and further tests will determine whether Mr Woolmer was also drugged or poisoned before or during the assault.
A hotel maid, using her master key to enter the room, found him slumped on the bathroom floor, with vomit at his side, at 10.45am. He was naked, open-mouthed and his face was angled towards the lavatory. There was no sign of a violent struggle, so she called for help, suspecting he had suffered a heart attack or a stroke. Even when news of Mr Woolmer’s death flashed around the world and the tributes to him poured in, there was nothing to suggest foul play.
Fans mourn Woolmer’s death. It would be another four days before police on the Caribbean island felt confident enough to confirm that the 58-year-old coach had, in fact, been murdered - strangled, according to Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields, the former Scotland Yard officer who is in charge of the investigation, in what he described as “extraordinary and evil circumstances”.
At the time of his death, Mr Woolmer was in the twilight of his career. He had first made his name as a batsman for Kent and England. He played for his county between 1968 and 1984 - his top score was 203 against Sussex in 1982 - and won 19 Test caps for his country between 1975 and 1981, with his top score of 149 coming against Australia in his first year as an international player.
As a right-handed batsman, he was known for his timing, touch and grace. In all first-class matches, he scored 15,772 runs at an average of 33.55, including 34 centuries and 71 half centuries. He was an occasional right-arm bowler, taking 420 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 25.87.
He ended his England career by joining the rebel South African tour of 1981-2, which led to him being banned from Test cricket for three years. Yet, it was as a coach that he perhaps made his greatest impact on the game: he was one of the first to realise the value of new technology to iron out flaws in player’s batting and bowling techniques.
Mr Woolmer, who was widely credited with “bringing laptop computers into the dressing-room”, initially coached in South Africa, before becoming director of coaching for Warwickshire from 1991-94.
After that, he returned to South Africa and spent five years as coach of the national side until 1999. Once again, he was no stranger to controversy. A year after he stepped down as coach, Hansie Cronje, his friend and the South African captain, confessed to being involved with the largest match-fixing scandal in cricket, receiving gifts and money from bookmakers to fix the results of games. Mr Woolmer, however, was forgiving even thought the corruption had started in 1997 under his “watch”: indeed in 2001 he called for a life ban on Cronje to be overturned so the player could be “rehabilitated” into the game.
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Was such forgiveness spurred by the fact that he had known of, or even condoned, match-rigging? His friend Neil Manthorp, a commentator and journalist, insists the coach was “over-loyal” to his players, but not “bent”. "I would sometimes say to him: ‘Bob - with a coach-captain relationship - how could you not have known, or suspected? What have you done with your stash of [illegal] money?’ said Mr Manthorp, a South African. “But he always looked me in the eye, he didn’t shuffle his feet and he said: 'Call me stupid. Call me naive. Call me a big f***ing idiot. But I didn’t know.”
From 2002-04, Mr Woolmer returned to coach Warwickshire and then had two years as the International Cricket Council’s high-performance manager. It was in 2004 that he took over as the coach of Pakistan.
Friends of the former Test player, who described him as genial and a wonderful raconteur, say he had already decided his spell as national coach would end after the World Cup - even if Pakistan had enjoyed success on the pitch.
Yet, he had enemies as well as friends in the game. Critics saw him as over-sensitive to criticism, confident to the point of arrogance, and overtly ambitious. England officials disliked the way he made an open play for Duncan Fletcher’s job as national coach last year after England’s disastrous tour of Australia saw them lose the Ashes.
As a white non-Muslim, he also had a difficult relationship with some in the Pakistan team. Players respected his coaching skills and the younger ones looked at him as a “father figure”, but he was always an outsider, rarely socialising with the team members and often, while living out of a suitcase on lengthy tours, spending long periods alone in his hotel room.
At the time of his death, he was not in good health. He was overweight - more than 16 stone yet only a shade over 6ft tall - and a diabetic. Days before his death, he had complained of breathing difficulties and on the day before his body was found, he was suffering from a stomach upset.
His widow, Gill, the mother of his two grown-ups sons and who lives in Cape Town, said that the email he sent hours before he died had revealed that he was devastated by his team’s loss to Ireland. She said he was “really depressed and that he could not believe how Pakistan’s defeat to Ireland had happened”.
But who had wanted Bob Woolmer dead - and why?
It emerged last week that the coach had been writing a sequel to his biography - Woolmer on Cricket, published in 2000 -and that it allegedly contained sensational new claims about match-fixing. Not so, said Ivo Tennant, his friend and ghost writer. “A publisher had still to be found. He had written about 10,000 words, which did not include any mention of match-fixing, beyond what he gleaned from Hansie Cronje’s involvement during his time as coach of South Africa. There were no planned revelations to come,” Mr Tennant said.
Others, however, say that there were going to be new and important disclosures in the book - both about the Cronje betting scandal and his time as coach of Pakistan.
Mr Woolmer’s friend Richard Sydenham, who knows many of the world’s leading cricketers, said: “Bob told me he was going to write a book about the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal. He said there was more to come out, but he would not go into more detail.”
In an email to a Pakistani journalist, the coach said that he would tell the story of his time in charge of Pakistan after the World Cup. “I believe, regardless of the money, the story is worth telling, has to be told, and in the correct way. I am not a name-and-shame guy, just the honest facts. Let the punter make up his mind \u2026”
Even when his death was being treated as “suspicious” - rather than as murder - earlier this week, Sarfraz Nawaz, the former Pakistan bowler, was quick to link his death to corruption and match-fixing. “I surely feel that he has been bumped off,” he said. In the Far East, bookmakers - most of them operating illegally - take millions of pounds in bets daily on individual cricket matches. The temptation to offer - and receive - large bribes to fix matches is immense.
Once again, however, Mrs Woolmer was quick to dismiss any involvement by her husband in such shady activities. “He had not received any threats and had had no contact with anybody wanting to involve him in match-fixing or with bookmakers,” she said. Mrs Woolmer added that if her husband had been approached by a bookmaker or match-fixer "he would have shown themthe Those who know him well are convinced that his death must have been linked to the events at the World Cup - and was probably linked to the Ireland game itself.
Neil Manthorp, who had known Mr Woolmer for 16 years and regularly played golf with him, said: “It’s not coincidence that Bob was murdered just hours after the Ireland game. In soccer terms, it is like Manchester United losing to Shrewsbury Town 7-0. You have to wonder: how could it possibly happen?”
Mr Manthorp said that Mr Woolmer could accept a fair-and-square defeat, but would have been angry if he felt his players had deliberately thrown the game. “I definitely think he would have confronted the players if he had suspicions. He would have wanted to know the truth,” he said. There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that Mr Woolmer had clashed with one or more players in the team coach on the way back from the Ireland match.
Police are now investigating whether an argument with one of the team may have played a part in his subsequent murder. The police took statements and DNA samples from each of the players before they returned home to Pakistan yesterday. Officers are also poring over CCTV footage, as well as the coach’s mobile records and emails for clues.
The reputation of international cricket has been harmed as never before. Lord MacLaurin, the former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, called yesterday for a major review of the ruling body of world cricket, the International Cricket Council, which already has its own anti-corruption unit.
“When you’ve got something like this happening, which has really besmirched this world cup, we’ve got to look at absolutely everything in cricket and make sure no stone is unturned to make sure we do the very, very best for cricket around the world,” he said.
As Mrs Woolmer and her sons, Dale and Russell, come to terms with their grief this weekend, they are determined that some good will come out of the tragedy that has befallen their family. They have released a statement describing Mr Woolmer as “a unique character. He had a cheerful nature, positive outlook on life and a ‘never-give-up’ attitude.”
The statement said that he would have wanted the Cricket World Cup to continue and it announced that a trust fund had been established “to preserve Bob’s cricketing legacy”.
Friends say the coach had intended to set up the Bob Woolmer Cricket Academy in South Africa after stepping down as Pakistan’s coach - now it may be set up, instead, in his memory.
As the mystery over his death intensifies, it is impossible not to be astonished by how prophetic Mr Woolmer’s mantra has become in the light of the sinister events of the past week. His view on life - published on his website - reads: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present - a gift to make the most of.”
Woolmer inquiry focuses on team dispute
By Simon Hart and Philip Sherwell in Kingston and Andrew Alderson, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:28am BST 25/03/2007
Detectives are investigating whether Bob Woolmer was murdered after a fall-out with his Pakistani players over their dismal performance against Ireland in the cricket World Cup.
Woolmer’s relationships with some players were already strained in the build-up to the tournamentOfficers suspect that an explosive argument - rather than a hitman - was behind the murder of the former England batsman hours after Pakistan had crashed out of the contest following an unexpected defeat by Ireland eight days ago.
Mr Woolmer died after being found unconscious in his Jamaica hotel room at 10.45am last Sunday. It was confirmed on Thursday that he had been strangled.
There were widespread rumours yesterday of an angry clash between Mr Woolmer, who coached the Pakistan team, and a player, or players, on the bus back to the hotel after the match.
Friends of the 58-year-old Briton are convinced that he would have confronted individual players if he felt they had thrown the game as part of a betting scandal.
His relationships with some players were already strained in the build-up to the tournament.
Pervez Mir, the spokesman for the Pakistan team, revealed last night that Mr Woolmer had been due to see Inzamam-ul-Haq, the team captain, on the day he died, but the meeting never took place. It had been arranged to discuss the player’s future, but he had already decided he intended to step down as captain of the one-day team. Inzamam and the team’s bowling coach, Mushtaq Ahmed, were spoken to by detectives last night, only hours before they were due to fly home.
Police arrived at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Montego Bay as the team finished lunch under palm trees around the swimming pool.
The pair were taken aside to a player’s room for 30 minutes at the five-star hotel to talk to officers.
Inzamam had already checked out of his room and had his luggage with him when the police arrived. The Pakistani team spokesman said the officers were simply trying to cover a few routine questions not previously dealt with.
Later, Inzamam laughed off suggestions that they may not be returning home. He said: “There is nothing special and we shall be going home.”
It emerged last night that Mr Woolmer had offered his resignation as Pakistan’s coach - a post he had held for three years - only hours before he was strangled.
He sent an email from his laptop in Jamaica to Nasim Ashraf, the Pakistan cricket board chairman, saying he wanted to retire to spend the rest of his life with his family in Cape Town.
Neil Manthorp, a cricket broadcaster and journalist who had known Mr Woolmer for 16 years, is convinced the Ireland match was central to his friend’s murder. “I definitely think he would have confronted the players if he had suspicions. He would have wanted to know the truth,” said Mr Manthorp.
Detectives in Jamaica have concentrated their inquiries on the Pakistan squad since the police announced that Mr Woolmer had been murdered in “extraordinary and evil circumstances”.
Officers have taken statements and DNA samples from the players, who were staying at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston where Mr Woolmer was found unconscious.
Two Pakistani diplomats arrived from Washington yesterday to handle the fallout from the murder. Police are also thought to be investigating whether Mr Woolmer’s killer, or killers, used a spare or stolen key card to get into his 12th floor room.
Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields, a former Scotland Yard officer who is heading the murder inquiry, said yesterday: “This is a unique investigation in that most of the witnesses are leaving the jurisdiction very shortly.”
There is no extradition treaty between Pakistan and Jamaica.