March 16, 2008
Woolmer's hotel room a tourist draw
Posted on 03/16/2008 in Bob Woolmer
Proof that there are some fairly sick people in the world comes from US magazine Sports Illustrated which reports that the hotel room in which Bob Woolmer died has become a tourist attraction.
"Foreigners are still intrigued by his death," said Lloyd Bremner, the hotel's general manager. "It's pretty amazing," he said. "Some people request to be in it; some want to be on the same floor."
July 2, 2007
The murder that never was
Posted on 07/02/2007 in Bob Woolmer
Three months on, Bob Woolmer's mysterious death in Jamaica still casts a shadow over the world of cricket. In a special report for Observer Sport Monthly, Mark Townsend follows the extraordinary tale from rumour to conspiracy to murder, and all the way back again.
Serious errors in the crucial days after Woolmer died ensured that a flawed line of inquiry - the murder claim - went largely unquestioned. Antiquated equipment and forensics, hasty decision-making and a lack of reliable evidence compounded the mistake. The CCTV footage of Woolmer on the 12th floor of the Pegasus - the last images of him alive - had to be flown to London to enhance its quality, delaying for weeks the discovery that no one else entered room 374 that night. Scotland Yard was asked to re-examine Kingston's toxicology analysis.
June 17, 2007
Behind the headlines
Posted on 06/17/2007 in Bob Woolmer
In the Woolmer episode, speculation took a vicious turn, fed by sensationalism, racism and lazy thinking, writes Mike Marqusee in The Hindu.
Newspapers across the world leapt from bald facts to elaborate conspiracy theories. The Pakistanis had thrown the Ireland match, or perhaps the West Indies match; Woolmer had been about to blow the whistle and paid the price. There was no evidence to support any of these far-fetched plot-turns, but that didn’t stop some of Britain’s foremost cricket journalists from drawing the most damning conclusions about Pakistan and its cricketers.
Also read Peter Roebuck's piece in Cricinfo on the same issue.
June 14, 2007
Questions remain over match-fixing
Posted on 06/14/2007 in Bob Woolmer
Bob Woolmer’s death might now have been declared the result of natural causes but that should not be used by the ICC as proof positive there is no match-fixing in cricket, according to an editorial in The New Zealand Herald.
Cricket's governors adopted a somewhat haughty tone on learning Jamaican police had concluded Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer was not murdered, but died of natural causes. The death had resulted in the game being unnecessarily tarnished by bizarre theories of match-fixing, said Lord Condon, of the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit. This may have been so. But Lord Condon might ponder why people were so ready to put the worst-possible construction on Woolmer's death, and what that says about the state of cricket.
In The Age, Chloe Saltau speaks to Barry Richards, who says that Bob Woolmer’s family has been put through the wringer and heads should roll over the bungled investigation into Woolmer’s death.
June 13, 2007
Verdict will never end the team's nightmare
Posted on 06/13/2007 in Bob Woolmer
"I am pleased to hear that Bob [Woolmer] was not murdered," writes Inzamam-ul-Haq in The Telegraph. "All the boys will feel the same, as I'm sure his family will also. But this verdict will never take away one of the toughest periods in our lives. It was a nightmare."
I was one of the few who saw Bob lying in his room and it was very upsetting. We had become close as captain and coach over the three years he had spent with the Pakistan team. We were already very down and depressed after losing to Ireland. We knew we had let our country down and that we would be leaving the World Cup. Then to go through all that we did, with police interviews and with the world's media after us, it was very, very tough. As I said, they were the hardest days I have known.
April 1, 2007
Speculation grows over Woolmer death
Posted on 04/01/2007 in Bob Woolmer
The frenzy of media speculation surrounding the death of Bob Woolmer a fortnight ago shows no sign of abating with two new reports in the Sunday newspapers.
UK tabloid The Sunday Mirror puts forward the theory that Woolmer was drugged with aconite, a herbal poison that dates back to medieval times, which causes death by asphyxiation. The report suggests that the poision, which could take the form of a white powder, could have been mixed in with Woolmer’s other medication.
The newspaper claims that this would account for the fact Woolmer died without a struggle and why no marks were found on his neck.
Professor John Henry of St Mary’s Hospital in London told the paper that the drug would not show up on a post mortem unless the examiner knew what to look for.
The Mail on Sunday carries a claim that Woolmer had drunk a bottle of whisky on retiring to his room after the Ireland defeat.
March 25, 2007
A World Cup forever overshadowed
Posted on 03/25/2007 in Bob Woolmer
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There has only been one story in the cricket this week
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The Sunday broadsheets continue to try and make sense of Bob Woolmer's murder. In The Independent on Sunday, Nick Townsend says that the game Woolmer loved so much has been pushed firmly into the background. He also extends the theory that perhaps Woolmer knew too much about the darker side of the game.
From a World Cup of tantalising possibilities, it has become a Cup of Woe. Rather like the feeling of emptiness and despair which overcame us when the 1985 European Cup final proceeded while the bodies were still being removed at the Heysel Stadium, does anyone really care about the cricket?
Also in the Independent on Sunday, Stephen Brenkley gives a very personal tribute to Woolmer.
But his greatest virtue had nothing to do with his cricketing prowess. It was that he had time for everybody. There was no side to Bobby. In the high-pressure world of big-time cricket, he did not seal himself in a bubble. He wanted to embrace the whole world.
A common theme is also that Woolmer should have been England coach, probably back in 1999 when David Lloyd took over, and, even at the age of 58, would have commanded an interview to take over from Duncan Fletcher. Simon Wilde, in The Sunday Times, looks at Woolmer the coach
Meanwhile, in the Sunday Telegraph Mike Atherton insists the ICC can no longer decide the game’s future with the focus solely on money.
There is no suggestion that Woolmer's murder has anything to do with corruption. Even so, it is time for the administrators of the game to take note; time to put the game's long-term interests first, rather than the need to make decisions with purely money in mind, no matter what the consequences.
Just ask yourself why we have seen so many mis-matches in the opening week of the tournament and why there are more teams, 16, than ever before, even though some of them would struggle to beat a good London club side. With Ireland and Bangladesh going through to the second stage of the tournament, the ICC should be careful what they wish for.
The the same paper, Lord MacLaurin, the former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, has called for a major review of the ICC.
Lucky England
Posted on 03/25/2007 in Bob Woolmer
This World Cup will always be remembered as the Bob Woolmer murder World Cup, writes Vic Marks in The Observer. Cricket, he writes, has long since lost its innocence, particularly in the subcontinent and England have no idea how lucky they are.
Play badly and Michael Vaughan's men will receive flak in the press and some grumbles from former players, while the Barmy Army defiantly supports them come what may. As Woolmer used to say on the golf course when his opponent deposited the ball into the water: 'The ball's in the lake; nobody died.' Some sense of perspective remains.
But play badly for Pakistan or India and the consequences can be more severe. It is not only effigies of fallen heroes that can be burnt; so, too, can their houses. In Ranchi, Mahendra Dhoni's home has been damaged after India's defeat by Bangladesh. And it may be that a stunning defeat for Pakistan caused a madman to assault the coach. This is serious stuff - we are no longer in pedalo territory.
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