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

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ISLAMABAD, March 25: Pakistan's bookmakers say underground gambling groups are unlikely to have been involved in the murder of national cricket coach Bob Woolmer even though match-fixing plagues the sport.

Bookies said that the groups had no motive to go after Woolmer who was strangled to death a day after Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup following their loss to unfancied Ireland.

Jamaican police have stressed they do not yet have any suspects, but fingers are being pointed at the powerful betting and match-fixing mafia that has become synonymous with cricket.

“It is true that match-fixing is still a problem and international players from many countries are involved,” a leading bookmaker in Rawalpindi said.

“But how would bookmakers benefit from the murder of a coach? We don't understand,” the bookie said on condition of anonymity.

Speculation has mounted since Woolmer's death last Sunday that he was about to blow the whistle on match-fixing in a new book.

Another leading bookie, working in Rawalpindi and in the capital Islamabad, claimed Pakistan's loss in the opening match against the West Indies was fixed as well as the result in India's clash with Bangladesh.

He also claimed Indian, Pakistani and South African bookmakers paid large amounts of money to cricketers to try to swing the result of matches.

But he said there was no information circulating in Pakistan's many underground gambling dens to suggest Woolmer was aware of the problem.

“It is possible that Woolmer had come to know of certain people involved and they planned his murder, but as such we have no information that bookmakers wanted to get rid of him or he was posing any problems,” he said.

Although gambling is banned in Pakistan, there are numerous underground networks. In Rawalpindi and Islamabad almost 50 dens exist, most of them set up in public call offices, jewellery stores, video shops and shoe stores.

A top bookie based in Lahore said that information about matches that determined rates came mainly from neighbouring India.

“Pakistani bookmakers do not have a very large network and their operations are mainly dependent on bookies based in the Indian city of Mumbai,” he said.

Match-fixing scandals have erupted in both countries in recent years, most notably embroiling former South African captain Hansie Cronje who was taped by New Delhi police alluding to the underworld's links with cricket.

In Pakistan, former captain Salim Malik was implicated in fix allegations in the mid 1990s that ended his career.

Since Woolmer's death, claims have emerged from former cricketers and criminals alike of cricket's links to match-fixing.—AFP