Even Cricket Can't Escape Death

The 2007 Cricket World Cup is currently being held in the West Indies. It started on March 19, 2007 and will run until the final championship match on April 28, 2007.

The theme song for this year's event is "The Game of Love and Unity"

This year, over 100,000 people are expected to make the visit to the islands hosting the games. So far, two unexpected powerhouses in Pakistan and India have been eliminated in the first round.

On March 18, 2007, a day after Pakistan's loss to Ireland, eliminating them from the tournament, their coach Bob Woolmer was found dead at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica.

After initial specualtion that the death was related to Woolmer's health (he was a type 2 diabetic and suffered from breathing problems), Jamaican Police announced he was strangled. His body was found in his hotel room, where he lay half-naked with only a towel on.

Now treating the incident as a murder, a Jamaican police officer told the Jamaican Gleaner "A bone in the neck, near the glands, was broken, and this suggests that somebody might have put some pressure on it."

There is speculation people involved in match-fixing were at the heart of the murder, but Woolmer's wife Gill denied these claims. "He had nothing to do with the match-fixing controversy and any such person being involved is highly unlikely. We never got any threats as far as I know"

Police interviewed and collected fingerprints and DNA samples from the entire Pakistan cricket team before letting them leave the country on March 24.

A Time magazine article focuses on the scandals Cricket has been involved in recently. Simon Robinson writes,

"Cricket is neither gentle nor even that noble these days. Over the past decade international cricket has been shaken by a series of scandals — match fixing, doping, illegal bowling actions (a cricket ball must be delivered with a straight arm; a bent elbow as in baseball's pitching action is impermissible) — that have sandpapered away much of the honor and decency that the game once embodied."

In the article, Robinson mentions that Woolmer was working on a book in which some commentators speculate would expose match-fixing within the Pakistani team.

The Associated Press reported that authorities said there was no sign of forced entry, suggesting Woolmer likely knew the killer or killers.

Police are currently analyzing security cameras from the hotel to get a better idea of who was on the same floor as Woolmer's room at the time of the murder