Bob Woolmer: Not Murdered?

Either Mark Shields is nowhere close to finding Woolmer's murderer (if there is such a thing) or he has a tendency to be oft misquoted. The Cricinfo report here says quite clearly that the police have ruled out the Pakistani players as suspects and were now treating them as witnesses.

Turns out the next day Shields is being quoted by Guardian as saying this is not the case; in fact he describes PJ Mir's "claims" to that effect as being "inaccurate", repeating that "nobody could be ruled out".

Well, Shields, if that is the case, why did you say only 24 hours earlier that, "It's fair to say they are now being treated as witnesses"? Does the 'they' in that statement not refer to the same Pakistani players?

Also, several news agencies have reported the results of the first autopsy were not accurate, but Guardian added that he might not have been murdered at all. In that same Guardian report linked to earlier, an unnamed PCB official is quoted as implying that the Jamaican police had acted 'hastily' by declaring Woolmer's death as murder:

"We believe that the autopsy by the pathologist may have had error counts and [the police] are now considering having a second autopsy to confirm the cause of death," said the official. "The feedback we have got is there are some contradictions in the version of events after Woolmer was found unconscious. But we will get a clearer picture after our manager briefs the board on what took place there."

This has now forced Shields & Co. to order a second autopsy, though he maintained that the police was confident the first one was accurate and he in particular was 'sure' that Woolmer was murdered. He conceded, nevertheless, that it was an issue that might be brought up by the defense after they make arrests and trial is held.

Meanwhile, back home, our players have returned, half of them in Karachi, half in Lahore, and obviously, they weren't exactly welcomed back with open arms. But still, the way its been reported in the media has disappointed me (Cricinfo says the ones at Karachi were "heckled by a crowd of around 100 people" some of which chanted stuff like "go to hell").

In Lahore things were calmer, but only because the players were let out secretly through the cargo section. One waiting fan there reportedly said, "We didn't want to hurt them, we just wanted to vent our frustration". Yeah right, venting out your frustrating by shouting out stuff like "go to hell"? How civil is that?

Sad to see that even the tragic events of last three weeks has brought back very little perspective into the psyche of the obsessive cricket fan here. Very sad indeed.