SOUTH AFRICA: Family of murdered cricket coach are planning to issue a statement

The family of the murdered Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer are expected to give a public statement. The family of Bob Woolmer are planning to issue a statement in response to police reports that the Pakistan cricket coach was murdered, a spokeswoman answering the family's phone told Reuters on Friday (March 23). Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his Jamaican hotel room on Sunday and died later. Jamaican police launched a murder inquiry on Thursday (March 22) after reporting that the Briton's death was "due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation". Pakistan's cricketers and team officials will be swabbed for DNA on Friday by police as a routine exercise. The Pakistan World Cup squad and management were finger-printed on Thursday at the Kingston Pegasus hotel, where Woolmer was murdered on Sunday (March 18). They were supposed to undergo DNA tests on the same day but police allowed them to catch a flight to Montego Bay, where they are staying at the behest of the Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller. The case has become one of the biggest-ever stories to hit cricket. Woolmer was found unconscious on his bathroom floor on Sunday morning by a maid. He was pronounced dead in a local Kingston hospital. Police said on Thursday it was a murder case and that there may be more than one assailant, or a very powerful individual. Woolmer's death came the morning after Pakistan, one of the favourites to win the World Cup, were eliminated having lost to tournament debutants Ireland. The result was one of the biggest shocks in the 32-year history of the tournament.

ITN Source | March 23, 2007

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