March 26, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1428

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LONDON, March 25: Pakistan team stopped off in London on Sunday ahead of their scheduled return home, leaving behind the body of their coach Bob Woolmer and a murder mystery.

Their plane from Kingston to Montego Bay the night before was delayed for an hour over security checking but the party arrived mid-morning in London where they were expected to spend most of the day before completing the long journey home.

Sky television pictures showed the party looking grim-faced within Heathrow airport as they collected their baggage before heading to a nearby hotel.

Jamaican police had quizzed Inzamam, assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed and manager Talat Ali in Montego Bay about three hours before the team was due to leave the island to clear up ‘ambiguities’ in previous statements, but then said the team was free to go.

“There is nothing to suggest that any of them are a suspect at this stage,” deputy police commissioner Mark Shields said at a news conference in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, on Saturday.

The murder of Woolmer, 58, by strangling last Sunday has rocked the World Cup and completely overshadowed the action.

He was discovered unconscious in his Kingston hotel room and pronounced dead later that day in hospital. Police confirmed they were treating the death as murder on Thursday.

A coroner ordered Woolmer's body held in Jamaica pending an inquest, the timing of which was uncertain.

The killing has become a genuine whodunit complete with rampant speculation that match-fixing may have been involved.

The powerful Pakistanis made an early exit from the tournament with a stunning loss to unheralded Ireland.

For a group which had been the subject of such scrutiny for a week, they appeared relaxed and almost carefree as they quit the island for the long journey home via the Jamaican capital.

Frustratingly for them, extra security checks delayed their flight for 60 minutes but the Pakistan team took the hold-up with resigned good humour as they awaited take-off.

They had been through far, far worse during the previous week.

All the players were dressed in western clothing, with the exception of batsman Mohammad Yousuf, who was impeccably dressed in a traditional beige shalwar kameez.

Spinner Danish Kaneria wore a red sports cap, blue denims, a white short-sleeved designer shirt and white training shoes while all-rounder Shahid Afridi opted for sharp, beige linen trousers with a white jersey with two-tone grey stripes.

They could have been well-to-do Asian tourists or cool, well dressed young businessmen.

The casual observer, though, could not really mistake them as such.

The Pakistan party's march through to departure gate 17 was accompanied by a heavy security presence as a phalanx of press photographers were warned not to take pictures of them.

They were also advised that if they filmed the players on board before take-off, they would be ejected from the flight.

While this media scrum went on, the players appeared almost disinterested. For the past few days, they have been banned by team management to talking to a press corps ravenous for details of a genuine whodunnit.

The majority of the players took their seats in business class, though wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal and Kaneria had to sit in the first row of economy, or ‘business overspill’.

Best friends Inzamam and Mushtaq claimed the front two seats of the plane.

The 30-minute short hop across the island was then over in a flash and the team disembarked at Kingston and boarded another plane 40 yards away, waiting for them on the tarmac.

Only two of the World Cup backroom staff were missing.

Assistant manager Asad Mustafa remained in Kingston and will accompany Woolmer's body home eventually after the inquest.

South African fitness trainer Murray Stevenson also remained to assist the police in their investigation on behalf of the Pakistan team.—Reuters