Who killed Bob Woolmer?

Harsha Bhogle once made the following statement about Pakistan cricketers; “Pakistanis are fighters. They are always fighting someone, usually themselves!” Time and again, Pakistani cricketers have taken great pains and have gone to great lengths to prove Harsha right. They accused each other as a matter of routine; they engaged in fist fights in full public view and abused drugs as if they were the mint candies. Now, as cricket’s darkest world cup gets even murkier with the mysterious death of Bob Woolmer and premature retirement of Inzamam Ul Haq, Pakistan cricket is getting sucked into a turmoil from which it may never recover.

The Jamaican police have at last confirmed our worst fears. Bob Woolmer was indeed murdered. He was strangulated in his hotel room by at least two persons. Now, it stands to logic that these two persons are those he knew and commanded the authority to get into Woolmer’s room without being stopped by the security. If you look into the matter carefully, it cannot be the people who were involved in match fixing simply because it would have been very difficult for them to gain an entry into Woolmer’s room. It cannot be even an enraged fan as some sources in the media are suggesting. Because fans would never get to enter Woolmer’s room and Woolmer would never entertain two strangers into his room just after his team suffered one of the worst defeats in the history of the game.

So, who did it?

We might have to wait for a long time to get the answer, or we may never get it. Bob Woolmer’s death may have buried many of the dark secrets associated with Pakistan cricket with him. Probably that was the cause of his death!

We wouldn’t want to jump to conclusions as yet. It’s not my intention to suggest that someone from Pakistan team murdered Bob Woolmer. But as a cricketing nation, Pakistan has had a troubled past which contained unexplained mysteries. The Pakistan cricket board is simply not able to curb its wayward players and highhanded officials. Maybe it was the listlessness of Pakistani cricket, maybe it was the autocratic way the cricket was run, or may be it was the dark underbelly of match fixing mafia. Whatever was the reason of Woolmer’s death, cricket has lost a wonderful coach and a marvelous analyst of the game.

This is just not cricket.