Helping hand: Bob Woolmer talks to Younis Khan earlier this month
Posted on 03/23/2007 7:19:08 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Pakistan in turmoil over Woolmer murder
By Derek Pringle in Gros Islet, St Lucia Last Updated: 10:57am GMT 23/03/2007
In urdu, Pakistan means "Land of the Pure," not a description you readily attach to the country's cricket team, who have long courted controversy. Yet the murder of their coach, Bob Woolmer, is the most shocking association yet for a team who have found themselves near to the scene of many of the major cricketing scandals of the past 15 years.
Jamaican police last night launched a murder investigation after announcing that Woolmer, 58, had been strangled in his hotel room in Kingston on Sunday night.
The former Kent and England player was a man of the world, having travelled, played and coached in a career spanning 40 years. An enthusiast, he liked a challenge. But some challenges are insurmountable and Pakistan cricket, with its shifting agendas and personnel, proved beyond even him.
Their two defeats at the World Cup would have hurt Woolmer deeply but not to the point of the fanaticism shown in Pakistan, where effigies of him and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq had been burnt by mobs to chants of "Death to Bob Woolmer, Death to Inzamam". Tragically, half that wish has now been granted, though if his passing is somehow linked either to his team or illegal bookmakers, then all of cricket is in deep crisis.
In Pakistan, the game is a microcosm of society, which has lived in a state of turbulence ever since Partition in 1947. Corruption is rife as is nepotism, factionalism, regionalism and any other "ism" you might care to mention. The great reggae vocalist Leroy Sibbles once sang the line "too much ism and schism", with regard to the political strife in 1970s Jamaica, but it could just as easily apply to Pakistan.
Cricket there has not been immune to those forces, save for a brief period when Imran Khan took control and picked players on merit. The team, despite containing some of the most talented players on the planet, have not been as purposeful since, with many big names assuming leading roles in the match-fixing scandal of the past decade. South Africa's Hansie Cronje may have been the only one to cough up to those crimes, but his ill-gotten gains are thought to have been piffling compared to those involved from India and Pakistan.
The 1999 World Cup game against Bangladesh, a dead match the latter won, has long felt to have been thrown. Those suspicions led to a security guard with a register being placed on the team's floor at the last World Cup in South Africa, a check imposed on no other team. The move allowed the International Cricket Council to keep tabs on everyone visiting the Pakistan players.
The stigma has not entirely gone away, despite the ICC anti-corruption unit closely monitoring Tests and one-day matches since 2001. Last week's defeats in Jamaica to West Indies and Ireland have fuelled speculation with former player Sarfraz Nawaz calling into question the match against Brian Lara's side on March 13. Sarfraz is famous for being outspoken, but his is not a lone voice in a country brimming with conspiracy theories.
Pakistan's ability to ambush themselves is legendary. After being sacked, coach Richard Pybus revealed how making plans proved futile as the present was always being overthrown.
There exists a paranoia that the world is out to humiliate them too, something seen at the Oval last year, when they were docked five runs by the umpires for suspected ball tampering. Outraged at the slight to their honour, despite plenty of previous, they forfeited the Test. Frustrated at the team's intransigence, Woolmer offered to resign, but was turned down by Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of Pakistan's Cricket Board and a moderate voice until his own resign-ation late last year.
After Imran's influence ended in 1992, every wrongdoing has seemed to bring a denial. The recent presence of banned steroids in samples given by Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, confirmed by an independent laboratory, was quickly swept under the hand-knotted rug by the Pakistan board when the pair's bans were lifted within weeks. Tellingly, neither bowler is present at this World Cup.
The scandals stretch back into the last decade. On the 1992-93 tour of the West Indies, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Aaqib Javed were detained for possession of marijuana. According to one senior Pakistan journalist they threatened to walk out of the tour if prosecuted, a tactic that saw them released without charge.
The impression is that many of the players, like the male-dominated society they come from, are a law unto themselves with allegiance only to Islam and their family. That could be why democracy has failed in Pakistan and the reason military dictator-ships seem to be the only effective form of government.
Born in neighbouring India, Woolmer would have known this before he accepted the task of coaching them. Ever the optimist, he probably believed he could change it too, though his wife, Gill, has revealed the growing strain he was under after Pakistan's recent setbacks.
Now, after his team lost to Ireland, he is dead, with a police investigation in full flow. It is a tragedy, but one you could not see befalling any other team but Pakistan.
In his book Shame, Salman Rushdie writes: "You can get anywhere in Pakistan if you know people, even to jail." Bob Woolmer knew an awful lot of people. Perhaps on that fateful Sunday, one of them became his enemy.
Helping hand: Bob Woolmer talks to Younis Khan earlier this month
Islam is such a kind and forgiving, peaceful religion..........
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Condolences to Bob Woolmer's family and friends.
What a shame for Pakistan. They lose two games in a row , get kicked out of the World Cup, and now find themselves unofficial suspects in a murder case! I bet they are burning the American flag and effigies of Bush.
Remember some time ago when a Columbian soccer player was shot dead after scoring a "own goal" and causing a loss in the World Cup competition. It makes our U.S. sports fanatics look positively blase in comparison. We had a guy, a Bear fan, legally change his name to Peyton Manning after losing a bet.
Of course, there's the Cubs' fans who might commit murder if some goober cost 'em the World Series,but who could blame 'em ; that would be justifiable homicide.
the next coach will be really motivated to win
Take note, folks....
This is PAKISTAN again....
Showing additional evidence of being the most fanatical Muslims -- in EVERY aspect of their lives.....
Try to take notice of the country of origin for many if not most of the lunatics committing the most savage, barbaric Islamic "acting out"..both in their country and their host countries.
To think of these "Death to America" at every opportunity rioters -- as ALLIES, is laughable..
At most - they should be regarded as unindicted co-conspirators in murder and mayhem..
Semper Fi
Imagine the next war will not be religious but sports-related. But cricket?
Pretty much nails it.
Cricket?
Hell it doesn't matter ----- the Pakis become enraged over ANYTHING they regard as a "slight on their honor"...
Their "honor", remembers -- requires killing young women who resist rape or wish to select their own mates..
Only one without honor, could behave in that manner..
They are without honor, integrity, honesty, compassion or worth...
F'em
Semper Fi
Interesting that on aussie TV it was Younis Khan who was quoted as the last man to see the victim alive.
Don't know whether that will make him a suspect,based on his past credentials.He leads the non-Islamist/secular bunch of the team & has never been on good terms with Inzy Haq(remember the punching incident between them).He was,according to reports,very close to Woolmer & his wife & would in all probability have made a better captain.
thanks for your comment, in today's newspaper 'The Australian' I read the entire team has been fingerprinted.
They have also all given DNA samples.
Do you think any team members could've done this ? Remember how Inzamam lashed out with his cricket bat at an Indian fan in Toronto ?
I thought the "Paki" in Pakistan was made up from the initials of different ethnic groups.
Yes,but it also means 'land of the (Spiritually) Pure' in Urdu & Persian.
Can't rule anything out.Cricket is becoming really ugly with the kind of crass commercialisation(sadly revolving around India). I frankly question the integrity of several Pakistani & Indian cricket officials/players.
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