June 13, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1428

KARACHI, June 12: Pakistan players expressed anger and relief on Tuesday after Jamaican police confirmed that coach Bob Woolmer was not murdered, with some calling for the Caribbean investigators to be sued.

The Pakistan squad were all fingerprinted and provided DNA samples after Woolmer was found dead in the Pegasus Hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica on March 18, the day after the team were knocked out of the World Cup by minnows Ireland.

Jamaica Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas told a news conference on Tuesday that Woolmer died of natural causes and also ruled out match fixing during the tournament.

Then-captain Inzamam-ul-Haq — one of the three squad members who were questioned twice after police said Woolmer was strangled — said there was no need to reopen wounds with legal action.

“I don’t feel court action would be of any use now. The players in general and I, as captain in particular, went through hell and those were the most terrible days of our lives,” Inzamam said. “We must be ready to handle such things better in future by involving the government and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) from the initial stages,” added Inzamam, who retired as skipper after the tournament.

Theories swirling around Woolmer’s death in the media ranged from the use of poison to the involvement of a so-called “match-fixing mafia”.

Inzamam, who said he would offer thanksgiving prayers following Tuesday’s announcement, said he was still haunted by the memories of the week after Woolmer’s death.

“It was a very tough time. We were out of the World Cup and still had to play one more match (against Zimbabwe) and people had hurled all sorts of allegations,” he expressed.Inzamam added the Pakistani squad were more than willing to cooperate with the police because they believed their statements would help the investigation into the popular coach’s demise.

“But when it dawned on us later that we were suspected, it was unbelievably horrifying.”

The 37-year-old Inzamam said the team were left alone for eleven days.

“No one called us from Pakistan and such behaviour was not ideal for any international team,” added Inzamam.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s frontline batsman Mohammad Yousuf, however, urged the PCB to sue the Jamaican police to compensate the players for what they went through.

“The PCB should take the legal action. But it’s not up to the players. We cannot sue the Jamaican police. It is a matter to be handled by the PCB,” Yousuf said. “It was their investigation. It was okay and we cooperated, but we were fingerprinted and not allowed to leave, which added to our pain of being knocked out of the World Cup.”Yousuf said players had never believed that Woolmer had been murdered. “We felt it was a natural death from day one and we feel the same now,” he said.

In London, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan reiterated on Tuesday that the PCB should take legal action over the handling of Woolmer’s death.

“No one should be able to go away scot-free after tarnishing and damaging the reputation of players and cricket so much,” Imran said.

The former all-rounder last week suggested that Sarfraz Nawaz should also be sued, claiming in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian the former Pakistan paceman was the first to raise claims that the team was involved with bookmakers.

“The PCB should sue everyone with responsibility because this was so damaging for the Pakistan team, for Pakistan cricket and to the country,” Imran said.

“They should have ruled out first whether this was natural causes. By what Pakistan cricket has been through — players being DNA tested, finger-printed, insinuations of match fixing, insinuations that the players might have killed their coach — all this was so damaging and this went on for a good two months. And I think someone should be held responsible for it.”

Also on Tuesday Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi demanded that the Jamaican authorities should say sorry.

“We went through trauma, but what has happened has happened. At least the Jamaican police owe us an apology,” said Afridi. “That would be some consolation after they botched up everything.”

In the meantime, former PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan said there would be no benefit in taking a legal action.

“Instead, in my opinion, Pakistan should demand an apology from the Jamaican government and the International Cricket Council (ICC),” said Shaharyar.—Agencies