When I started this blog immediately following the WALKOFF Test at The Oval between England and Pakistan I couldn't possibly imagine how events would unfold.
To summarise I was convinced then and am still now that the ICC gave the Pakistan players a lenient sentence for the Darrell Hair incident. What followed I felt was unsurprising. Shoaib Akhtar and another player were involved in drug abuse and by all accounts this lead to an imbalanced selection for the World Cup squad whereby Inzie (you may recollect my view that Inzie is purely a Test player due to his lack of manoevrability) surprisingly in my mind took charge. But did he have the credentials (perhaps) and the resolve (unlikely) to follow in Imran Khan's footsteps.
My feeling throughout is that corruption, irksome PCB management and poor leadership is rife throughout Pakistani cricket. The appointment of Bob Woolmer was welcomed and there were those in Pakistan by all accounts who thought that good would prevail and all the problems subside. At the time of the WALKOFF Test I was puzzled by Bob's reaction. As I have declared on bobwoolmer.com & repeated on timdelisle.com I knew Bob as a pre-teenager when he coached me at prep school in the late '60's and I know him to be a keen lover of the game, honest and very diligent, and yet over the Darrell Hair incident he appeared shackled (by the PCB management and that snake I imagine) and ultimately compromised. His loyalty to his players was admirable but one felt at the time that he knew more of what really happened at The Oval than was made public. His knowledge of the inner workings of the ICC was greatly utilised by Inzie & PCB board members no doubt and I suspect he was used as a go between for the wrong reasons. Anyway, the resultant ICC decision was inappropriate and the outrageous treatment of Hair must have made a bad taste in Bob's mouth. One can only speculate on what Bob's thoughts were about malpractice, cheating, matchfixing were when it came to Pakistani cricket but I am sure that at times he must have had to button his lip which must have sickened him a great deal. I suspect that he had identified troublesome players and back-up staff and management and it is conceivable that they were not all weeded out for the World Cup squad. Anyway if the views of Sarfraz Nawaz are accurate then at least 5 squad players were involved in match fixing. Whether this relates to those players fixing games prior to, during or prior to and during this World Cup I am not sure but the inference is that not all were whiter than white. As the Jamaican Police investigate the Pegasus Hotel tapes it is not appropriate to point any fingers at players on tour.
Bob's death may have been a chance killing. I have visited Jamaica a few times over the years and also the Pegasus, and the idea that this was a chance or pass-by/walk-by killing is very very unlikely indeed. Security in the hotel is not that bad and the idea that Bob was poisoned/throttled by a crazed rasta is pretty ridiculous.
Much has been made of the betting mafia operating from south-east asia and the murky world in which they operate. Personally, I doubt that their long claws could arrange an assassination at such short notice immediately following a dubious loss against Ireland (there's no evidence that the game was thrown by Inzie and/or his players).
But there are other possibilities. The most likely being (on the basis that Bob must have recognised, therefore let his killer or killers into his hotel room) that Bob had uncovered evidence that certain players were involved in a match-fixing ring and that he was about to blow the lid on their deeds. It might just explain the goings on in the dressing room during the Oval Test. Someone phoned me 2 days ago and suggested that a BIG MAN must have strangled Bob. I leave you to draw your own conclusions to what he actually claimed. The other possibility, and not even Sky or any member of the Press has suggested this, is that Al Queda or sympathisers killed Bob in retaliation for Pakistan's exit from the World Cup. I doubt that a peeved Pakistan cricket supporter (who had just spent his life savings on going to the West Indies)would go to the trouble but after seeing the burning effergies of Bob & Inzie in Pakistan and elsewhere then it's not inconceivable that an Al Queda sympathiser, possibly funded by those in Pakistan, who want to see more turmoil in the region, might have arranged a murder of this nature. Madness maybe but who could have foreseen 9/11 for that matter.
What are the consequencies for Pakistan if either players or supporters were involved in his death? Well, a total ban for Pakistan from ICC is not out of the question. Let's deal with the "players" scenario which includes by the way all those involved witht the tour party. I am not a lawyer or judge but I would suggest a 10 year ban from International Cricket, with a 5 year ban on all professional Pakistan cricketers from playing overseas (at all levels) with no ban for young cricketers seeking opportunities abroad (thus not stifling development), a complete overhaul of PCB. Well, you may not agree and I may be over-reacting but can you imagine what the reaction would be in the asian world. Al Queda would have a field day. In the "supporters scenario" I would suggest a 1 to 3 year ban but a professional players ban would be very unlikely. As Sarfraz Nawaz said today, the world authorities must wake up to the power of the matchfixing mafia. Sarfraz , you are a very brave man! Make sure you and your family are secure please.
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