I’m sorry to hear what happened about Bob Woolmer. Not because I’d ever heard of him, but because it sounds like a big loss to the cricket world, and because it sounds as if the ongoing investigation is going to be like kicking over a rock and dislodging a herd of scurrying beetles.
So, my questions:
– The media is saying gambling was likely involved. What are the odds that it was, as opposed to an outraged fan being the killer? How much personal security would Woolmer have had around him? I know American coaches sometimes have goons with them, during playoffs and such. If Woolmer had a crew, that would make it more likely it was a professional, wouldn’t it? As opposed to Joe Baggabiscuits, who would not have been able to bluff or stealth his way in.
– If Pakistan did throw the game, do you think all the players were complicit? I was under the impression that cricket players in Pakistan (and India) make serious coin. Would there be a price at which they could be bought? Or do they take the game way too seriously to throw a match at any price?
– Someone in another thread said the series might be called off because of this. How likely is that?
– Did anyone suspect foul play right off the, uh, bat, pardon the expression?
– If you’re an Ireland fan, I have to say I feel bad for you. You got the cricket equivalent of the Miracle Mets, and you only had about 24 hours to enjoy it before this happened. But at least you had that. Any good anecdotes to share about people’s reactions during and after the match?
– If you’re a Pakistan fan, I feel equally bad for you. Or if you were a fan of Woolmer in general. What are people saying in your neck of the woods?
To me, it seems that bookmakers would have won big time on Pakistan being beaten by West Indies and Ireland. So it would seem there was no reason for them to kill him unless he was about to blow the whistle on some activities. Who would stand to lose the most? Team members perhaps?
But there doesn’t seem any indication that he was about to do that. The other thing it seems that it was a person her knew.
My first thought was that he’d been killed by an outraged fan as retribution for the loss against Ireland as I know that the Pakistan fans are some of the most fanatical in the world.
Some sort of gambling connection wouldn’t be too much of a stretch - the sub-continent (India and Pakistan) is renowned for being a hotbed of betting on Cricket, and Bob was tainted by being the coach of the South African team at the time of the Hansie Cronje/Herschelle Gibbs match-fixing scandals. Whether he was involved and wanted out, was about to blow the whistle or wouldn’t get involved is hard to say, I don’t know enough.
As for cancelling the whole tournament, I hope not - the BBC pundits were saying that if someone “close to the tournament” was arrested, then stopping the tournament was inevitable, but that would be a great pity (IMHO). For the moment, it appears thing will go ahead as planned - BBC news.
It has been announced that the tournament will continue. It was never likely to have been called off IMHO. It’s not the first time that someone’s been killed at a major sporting event - the 1972 Munich Olympics, for example - and the prevailing opinion is usually that the event should go on.
As to whether Pakistan threw the match against Ireland, I’d say it was unlikely as pretty much the whole team would have had to be in on it. Cricket is sufficiently a team game that just bribing one batsman or bowler to play badly would be unlikely to have the desired effect. I don’t think Ireland have anything to feel bad about.
I think if it had been a professional hit they would have chosen a method other than strangulation. That seems like more of an enraged fan or bettor reaction. He was apparently a big guy, and wouldn’t have gone down easily.
Disagree entirely- andI think the Hansie Cronje affair shows how easily a game can be mnipulated. The captain gets to call the shots, make the field placings, and the bowling changes. Although more than one player is likely to fix a game, a captain sure can do it. And it’s not only the result that is the subject of betting- it’s runs scored in a given time frame etc.
The first article I saw in the National Post certainly left me with that impression - not by saying it outright, but just by the summary of the scene of his bed-room and the reference to him being in good health. Sounded like the reporter had heard more details but hadn’t been able to nail them down yet. It was one of those articles that left me thinking “we’ll be hearing more about this, and it likely won’t be good.”
We have had terrible media coverage of the Woolmer murder. First the media said he collapsed from stress. Then he committed suicide. Now he has been murdered.
I wish the media actually did some fact checking these days