JAMAICA: Pakistani cricket team on their way home as Jamaican investigation into murder of team coach continues

Jamaican police quizzed Inzamam, assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed and manager Talat Ali in Montego Bay about three hours before the team left on Saturday (March 24) to clear up "ambiguities" in previous statements. The squad was delayed for an hour at Montego Bay airport by security checks but still caught their connecting flight to London later on Saturday evening from Kingston. Two members of the contingent stayed in Jamaica voluntarily to help with issues surrounding the body, Pakistan's assistant manager, Asad Mustafa and team dietician Murray Stevenson. The murder of Woolmer, 58, by strangling last Sunday has rocked the World Cup and completely overshadowed the action. He was discovered unconscious in his Kingston hotel room and pronounced dead later that day in hospital. The killing has become a genuine 'whodunit' complete with rampant speculation that match-fixing may have been involved. The powerful Pakistanis made an early exit from the tournament with a stunning loss to unheralded Ireland. The International Cricket Council has sent Jeff Rees, an anti-corruption investigator, to Jamaica. Jamaican police assistant commissioner Mark Shields said investigators have "no clear suspects at the moment". He has said Woolmer may have been killed by someone he knew because the door to his 12th-floor room was not forced open. The killing has become a genuine 'whodunit?' complete with rampant speculation that match-fixing may have been involved. The powerful Pakistanis made an early exit from the tournament with a stunning loss to unheralded Ireland. Shields said police were looking at that possibility and noted that the International Cricket Council had sent Jeff Rees, an anti-corruption investigator, to Jamaica. "Of course it's a line of inquiry, but I repeat the important thing is that we keep an open mind and we don't go driving down one particular route with this investigation at the risk of actually finding out who Bob's killers are." he said. The match-fixing theory has been rejected by Woolmer's family. Shields met for two hours with two Pakistani diplomats who flew to Kingston on Saturday. They said they briefly discussed whether Pakistan would make players available to Jamaican authorities down the road, but Shields said they agreed to "cross that bridge when we come to it". "I think this would be a bit premature to talk about that because there in so suspect in the Pakistani cricket team. They are feeling bad, they are traumatised," said Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, first secretary of Pakistan Washington embassy.

ITN Source | March 25, 2007

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