LONDON, May 24: The BBC voiced surprise on Thursday that a Pakistani journalist is seeking substantial damages from the broadcaster for allegedly inferring he was linked to cricket coach Bob Woolmer's death.

Ehsan Qureshi, a correspondent with the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan, said on Tuesday that footage of him talking to Woolmer was used by the British broadcaster in a defamatory manner.

The segment, part of a Panaroma programme called ‘Death at the World Cup’, showed Ehsan in conversation with Woolmer at a social event during the two days before the coach died, he said.

Ehsan's lawyers, in a legal notice they said was served to the BBC, said the programme “gave an impression as if me and the other gentleman accompanying him were the suspects or had anything to do with the death of Bob Woolmer.”

But a BBC spokesman said it was “preposterous to suggest that anything in this Panorama programme is defamatory of Mr Ehsan Qureshi or has damaged his reputation in any way at all.”

“Any legal action will be vigorously defended by the BBC.”

Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room in Jamaica the morning after Pakistan crashed out of the tournament. Police said in March they believed he was murdered.—AFP