Pakistan cricketers head home after Woolmer murder

KINGSTON: Reeling from the murder of their coach Bob Woolmer, Pakistan's cricketers headed home on Saturday after police interviewed three team members for a second time, but said none of them were suspects.

"They clarified a number of points," Jamaica's deputy commissioner of police Mark Shields said after captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, caretaker coach Mushtaq Ahmed and manager Talat Ali were questioned just before they and the rest of the team headed to the Montego Bay airport for their flight home.

"There is nothing to suggest any of them is a suspect at this stage," Shields said of the trio.

"It was nothing, just one question, nothing special," the 37-year-old Inzamam told Sky News television.

All team members were interviewed by police and gave DNA samples and fingerprints. Shields said the team had cooperated fully.

"They were never under detention," said Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, the first secretary at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, who flew to Kingston with another diplomat to be briefed about the investigations.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Shields, he said the team were still 'traumatised' by the death of their 58-year-old coach.

Pakistan's cricketers on Saturday expressed relief at heading home from Jamaica, where Woolmer was murdered just one day after the team crashed out of the tournament with a shock loss to Ireland.

"The players are relieved now to be going home," team spokesman Pervez Mir told Sky News as the players packed their bags for their late Saturday flight home via London.

"The players have been very scared. When something like this happens it's indeed a very scary thing," Mir said, as rumors swirled the strangling death may be linked to match-fixing gangs.

"Of course it's one of our lines of inquiry," Shields said of the speculation.

He said however that he was keeping an open mind, and stressed that investigators had not identified any 'clear suspects' at this stage or made any arrests.

Woolmer was a former England international who had coached the Pakistan team since 2004.

Jamaican police believe the victim may have known his killer or killers. "It's fair to acknowledge that because it was in his hotel room it may be an associate," said Shields.

Authorities in Jamaica, one of the Caribbean nations hosting World Cup matches, told Woolmer's family the body will remain on the island until the conclusion of a coroner's inquest to be held as soon as possible.

Shields said the coach's widow, Gill Woolmer, was upset the body would not be repatriated on Monday, but understood this was a legal requirement.

The Woolmer family, as well as Pakistan Cricket Board chief Naseem Ashraf, rejected suggestions the coach may have been killed by gangs that feared their match-fixing activities would be exposed in a book Woolmer was planning to write.

Ivo Tennant, the co-author of the planned autobiography, also dismissed that theory.

"I can state that he had no intention of writing or publicizing any such detail in either this or his book on coaching and sports science, which will be published in June," Tennant wrote in The Times newspaper on Saturday.

Woolmer was coach of South Africa when their former captain Hansie Cronje was bought off by bookmakers in 1996, but was never alleged to have been involved himself.

Meanwhile, two South Africans with the Pakistani team, physiotherapist Darryn Lifson and trainer Murray Stevenson, said they were staying behind in Kingston.

"We promised the family to stay until everything is sorted out," Lifson said.