Sunday, March 25, 2007

Cricket team heads home amid probe into death


(CNN) -- The Pakistani cricket team arrived in London on Sunday after being permitted to leave Jamaica following further questioning of individual members about the death of coach Bob Woolmer.
Mark Shields, Jamaica's deputy police commissioner, told a news conference late Saturday that investigators wanted to clear up ambiguities in original statements by three team members to police two days ago.
Those questioned were team manager Talat Ali, team captain Inzamam Ul-Haq and player and assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed, he said.
Shields told reporters that the questioning was "standard police procedure."
Police are looking at betting and match fixing among their lines of inquiry. (Watch what has emerged as a possible motive in Woolmer's murder )
Woolmer, 58, was found in his Pegasus Hotel room last Sunday. He was declared dead at a hospital soon afterward.
Earlier this week, Jamaican police questioned, fingerprinted and took DNA samples from the entire Pakistani contingent -- players, managers and trainers.
The team touched down at London's main Heathrow Airport after boarding a flight from the Caribbean late on Saturday.
Players were the last to leave the plane and were escorted off by six police officers.
Television pictures showed the team looking grim-faced and speaking little as they headed to collect their baggage.
They then boarded a bus parked at the back of the terminal to avoid camera crews waiting for them in the main concourse.
The Pakistani contingent will be staying at a hotel near the airport until Tuesday, team spokesman Pervez Mir said on Sunday.
He said team members were distressed over speculation that Woolmer's death might be related to match fixing.
"There have been a lot of unnecessary rumors," Mir said.
Players are prepared to return to Jamaica if investigators require further assistance, Mir said, adding that the team does not expect to meet with British police.
Woolmer's death came only hours after Pakistan's humiliating elimination from the World Cricket Cup competition by an unheralded Irish team on St. Patrick's Day.
Nasim Ashraf, who resigned as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board after last Saturday's defeat, told CNN he received an e-mail that Woolmer sent last Saturday evening, expressing disappointment over the loss.
"I would like to praise my association with the Pakistan team, but now I would like to announce my retirement after the World Cup to live the rest of my life in Cape Town," the e-mail read.
Match-fixing scandals -- some involving millions of dollars -- have plagued the international game over the last two decades. Some players have been banned for life and others jailed.
Pakistan's loss in the tournament prompted outrage among the team's hard-core fans. In the streets of Karachi, Pakistan -- before the news of Woolmer's death -- protesters burned effigies of Ul-Haq.
Woolmer, who was English, played Test cricket for England in the mid-1970s. He coached the South African national team before taking over as Pakistan's coach in 2004.
-- CNN's John Raedler in Kingston and Alphonso Van Marsh in London contributed to this report

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