Pakistan cricket team 'needs legal help'

Former Pakistan cricketers have appealed to their government to send lawyers to the West Indies to assist the team after Jamaican police confirmed national coach Bob Woolmer had been strangled.

“I couldn’t have imagined even in my dreams that it could turn out to be a murder case,” said ex-test captain and Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup winning coach Intikhab Alam…You can’t have more shocking news than this.”

Woolmer, 58, was found in his room at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel and pronounced dead later on Sunday in hospital, a day after Pakistan’s upset loss to Ireland led to its early exit from the World Cup.

Jamaican police said a pathologist had concluded that Woolmer died from “asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation” and that his death was now being treated as murder.

Alam said the Pakistan team needed legal help.

“Those who are travelling with the Pakistan team are not capable enough to handle this issue,” Alam said. “I think the Pakistan government should send lawyers to assist the team.”

That view was supported by Sarfraz Nawaz, an outspoken former test fast bowler, who earlier voiced suspicions that Woolmer could have been killed by gambling interests, although he offered no evidence to support that claim.

“The Foreign Office (in Pakistan) and the government should now intervene immediately and send lawyers along with investigators from Pakistan,” Nawaz said. “It’s now a serious issue and maybe someone is playing dirty to tarnish the image of Pakistan.”