Woolmer had ‘story to tell’

Irish daily says he was going to write a book on his Pakistan experience

ISLAMABAD: Deceased coach of the Pakistan cricket team, Bob Woolmer, was planning to go public with allegations of corruption in international cricket before he was murdered, a senior official of the Irish Consulate in Islamabad said, quoting an investigative report carried by Ireland’s leading English daily Irish Independent, on Saturday.

The consulate official said the daily  quoted a recent email sent by Woolmer to a Pakistani journalist, in which he disclosed that he would write a story worth telling on his tenure as coach of the Pakistani team. The paper says the journalist who received the mail, fears for his safety and has asked not to be named.

In the email, Woolmer writes: “I am going to write a book on my tenure as Pakistan coach. I shall only start after the World Cup… I believe, regardless of the money, the story is worth telling [and] has to be told and in the correct way. I am not a name and shame guy, just the honest facts. Let the punter make up his mind.”

There is speculation that Woolmer was going to publish two books, not one. The first, on coaching, titled Discovering Cricket: The Art and Science of the Game, and the second, to be co-written with two others, on his experiences in Pakistan. According to the Irish Independent, fears that the underworld played a role in Woolmer’s murder were heightened when Jeff Rees, chief investigator of the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit, flew to Jamaica. 

“Match-fixing was at the centre of the investigation last night, with particular focus on Pakistan’s defeat at the hands of Ireland. What odds could you have got on Ireland winning that game? If you put, say, £100,000 on the Irish team to win, that is a lot of money,” the paper quoted a source close to the inquiry, who further disclosed that the Irish cricket team would also be questioned by the investigation team.

The daily then quotes Barry Richards, one of South Africa’s finest Test cricketers as saying: “There was a feeling that Woolmer was going to expose something. There is a dark side to cricket. The game got on top of it for a while, but it has never really been stamped out. There is no doubt it is still there. He was passionate about cricket, perhaps too passionate, and equally distressed after being told by a trusted friend that there had been suspicious movements in betting markets in Bombay a month before last Saturday’s match against World Cup minnows Ireland, a game which saw Pakistan humiliated.”

England captain Michael Vaughan, who lead his team against Kenya Saturday, was quoted by UK tabloid The Sun as admitting there was corruption in cricket. He said he believes some international players take money to perform erratically, and asked if he thought match-fixing still exists, replied: “If I’m honest, yes, I think it does.”

Vaughan added: “I’ve never experienced it with any team or any players I’ve played with. I’ve never felt I’ve played against anyone who was doing it. But my gut feeling is that there is still some kind of corruption in the game.”

The England skipper, who played n the Test between South Africa and England in January 2000, after which it was revealed that South African captain Hansie Cronje took money from a bookie, said his suspicions have been aroused by watching one-dayers on TV and believing some parts of the play did not look right. “I feel it is very hard to clear corruption from cricket,” he said.

According to The Sun, the ICC anti-corruption unit was also investigating unusual betting patterns in Pakistan’s World Cup defeat by West Indies on March 13, and probing a theory that bookies believed Pakistan would beat minnows Ireland and Zimbabwe, and still qualify for the second stage. “Information suggests rigging plans went awry when Ireland beat Pakistan,” the tabloid quotes a police source as saying. “There is a suggestion that this sparked dark arguments and recriminations.”