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Oh no, not another fixing probe!

Bob Woolmer was the coach of South Africa when Hansie fixer Cronje gambled and shamed the game we love so much. I have always wondered how much did Woolmer know about it all.

Now Zee News reports:


Fixing angle under scanner, Pak team to stay back for investigation

New Delhi, March 20: Speculation is rife about foul play being involved in Bob Woolmer`s death. Reports indicate that some current senior Pakistan team members might have fixed both matches, against West Indies and Ireland. It is being debated in cricketing circles that he could have been killed to cover up match-fixing by the Pakistani team. The Pakistan team would not be allowed to fly back home till the investigations are over.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, however, insists that team coach Robert Woolmer died of a massive heart attack.

A report in a leading daily quotes former Pakistani fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz saying that certain top players in the team were involved in fixing the matches against the West Indies and Ireland.

A loss to West Indies and then minnows Ireland came as a shock to the entire world as Pakistan became the first team to pack their bags from the World Cup.

Apparently certain PCB insiders told Nawaz that at least five leading bookies from Pakistan had reached the West Indies in the first week of March and were in touch with heavyweights in the team.

“The theory going around in West Indies police circles is that Woolmer might have been killed by those who wanted to silence him on the issue of match-fixing,” he claimed.

A former PCB official who requested anonymity said Woolmer’s book, Discovering Cricket, which he was writing, could have exposed the cricketer-bookie nexus in Pakistan, India, and South Africa.

The official claimed that Woolmer met Delhi police officers during Pakistan’s 2005 tour of India to gather material for the book. Nawaz said Woolmer had finished more than 50 per cent of the book.

Meanwhile, Pakistan would not be allowed to leave Jamaica without the completion of investigation and determining the cause of death of their coach Bob Woolmer.

Pakistan team may be shifted to a hotel in Montego Bay after playing their last Group “D” match against Zimbabwe on Tuesday and stay there till the investigations are completed.

Police is now trying to ascertain the circumstances which led to the death of the Pakistan coach. Authorities have visited the Pegasus hotel in New Kingston where Pakistan is being lodged.

No member of Bob Woolmer’s family will be coming to Jamaica to sign the documents of his autopsy. Woolmer’s wife is in Cape Town and his two sons live in London. Pakistan team trainer and close associate of Bob Woolmer, Murray Stevenson, has been authorised by the wife of the deceased to carry out the formalities on their behalf.

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