Bob Woolmer murdered

Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer is supposed to have been strangled to death. The motive that is being specualted on is that he was killed in retribution for Pakistans surprising first round loss and elimination from the world cup. One assumes a lot of bookies lost a lot of of money. The other idea being floated around is that he was writing a book exposing betting in cricket.

Either way this is the most terrible and heinous blow to the game in its history. Bob Woolmer was a player, a coach and a leader. A good batsman, he played for England and Kent and was part of Mike Brearley's MCC team that won the Ashes in 1975. He also toured India with Brearley in the series that was made famous or infamous for the John Lever vaseline incident.

He coached South Africa and was a pioneer in the use of computers and statistics to expose weaknesses in opposing players and teams. His premature death is a huge loss to cricket. It has exposed the vicious and seamy underbelly of cricket. Cricket on the subcontinent has become big business and it seems like a businessman somewhere felt that the loss of his wager was worth the loss of this poor mans life.