Murdered. But why?
Jamaican police have confirmed that Bob Woolmer died of a strangulation and are therefore treating his death as murder. No arrests have been made, although the Pakistan team and many people connected with the outfit have been questioned. One line of inquiry is that there is no sign of forced entry to his hotel room, which suggests that Woolmer may well have known his killer, and let him in to his room. In addition, there may have been several perpetrators, considering Bob Woolmer’s “stature”.
One question that will remain unanswered for some time, is: Why!? Why would anyone kill a man who gave so much to cricket? The most prominent conspiracy theory at the moment is that it was over the ol’ match-fixing chestnut, and there are several flavours of that. In either scenario, the assumption is that Woolmer was murdered because he was about to blow the whistle. The first is that the Pakistan team was involved in match-fixing in this World Cup, for example in their opening match against the West Indies. Maybe even against 10-1 outsiders Ireland? The other train of thought is that Woolmer was about to publish his autobiography which was allegedly going to disclose the events surrounding the match-fixing scandal involving Hansie Cronje, all those years ago. Whether the events of that incident are still relevant is questionable, but if he was to name names of the “match-fixing mafia” then that might have had serious consequences. Of course, this is all speculation and it’s possible we’ll never know who, what or why caused Bob Woolmer’s death.
What is not speculation, however, is that this World Cup is going to be remembered for all the wrong reasons. This is a crying shame, because it was shaping up to be one of the best. We’ve already been treated to some beautiful cricket, admittedly, batsmen dominated, but nevertheless some thrilling strokeplay. We’ve seen some shock results and even had a tie. South Africa and Australia are both on top of their game and we’re due to get a preview of the possible final tomorrow. Yet in light of current events, the call, mainly from emotional fans but has the support of former South African paceman Allan Donals, has been to abandon the World Cup:
I think the ICC have an easy decision to make, call the World Cup off, life is too short. The ICC need to send a message to address those off the field distractions
(from TMS comments)
Malcolm Speed, Chairman of the ICC has already said that the World Cup will continue as scheduled. It’s a horrific decision to make: whomever eventually wins this tournament will likely take little pleasure in it, and that considering the ugly nature of everything that is happening, especially if corruption is involved, playing cricket seems to be the last thing on anyone’s mind. Cancelling the World Cup is really a financial impossibility for the ICC, something that would likely have knock-on consequences for years to come if they had to refund the millions of pounds they were paid for broadcasting rights. But in not cancelling the cup, the ICC risks making a mockery of the tournament (assuming it can ever recover).
For the sake of cricket, though, “the show must go on” and cancelling the cup would have been a mistake. The response to these events has been remarkable, all over the world literally millions of people apparently affected, saddened, stunned or outraged. But in reality, 99% of these people only “knew” Woolmer through what they had seen or read in the media (myself included). I’ve read all the obituaries, and I’ve looked at his biography and his history as a player and a coach and I’ve listened to the way people who actually knew him talk about him. It’s always with respect and grace and I’ve yet to see a harsh word said about him. The reason people are so stunned by all this, is that for the most-part, we are sheltered from such evil events. Certainly, we read about them on the news, we know that they happen and if anything, we become desensitised to it all. It’s “easy” to see reports of the things that happen in war-torn parts of the world and blame it on civil unrest, or political struggles or even just a human-being with a screw loose. But in the world of cricket, it’s unprecedented. A man murdered over cricket. It’s impossible to fathom what could be so important so as to kill another human, over cricket. Maybe we’ll find out. Probably, we won’t. But cancelling the World Cup because of this, it seems, would have been an insult to Woolmer and certainly not what he would have wanted.
All the people not immediately connected to him need to move on and try to rekindle their relationship with the game. And what better way than to watch some high quality cricket in cricket’s biggest contest?
Tags: Bob-Woolmer, cricket, its-just-not-cricket, murder, pakistan, World-Cup-2007Related Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
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