da bwin： Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, Mushtaq Ahmed, the caretaker coach, and Talit Ali, the manager, were taken for further questioning by the police, but the team was still on course to leave as planned at 6pm Jamaica time
Cricinfo staff24-Mar-2007
Mushtaq Ahmed cries after learning of Bob Woolmer’s death © Getty Images
After Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, Mushtaq Ahmed, the caretaker coachand Talat Ali, the manager, were questioned by police on Saturday over Bob Woolmer’s murder, it’s now the turn of Brian Lara, the West Indies captain. Lara was staying in the room opposite to Woolmer’s in the Pegasus Hotel and the questioning, which may be followed by DNA testing, is believed to be part of the routine process of eliminating suspects.After the questioning of Inzamam and the other two, the Pakistan team flew out of Jamaica to home as scheduled.Pervez Mir, the team’s spokesperson, told Cricinfo that the three Pakistan players werequestioned for about half an hour. “They were questioned over a coupleof things that were previously overlooked.” But he was keen to stressthere was “nothing out of the ordinary” about the questioning andreiterated that “no one from the team is involved – this is all justmedia hype.”The team is planning to leave as per our original plan and there isno change in that,” added Mir. The team is due to fly from Jamaica toHeathrow and onwards from there to Karachi.Later, addressing a press conference, Mark Shields, deputy commissioner of Jamaican police, said: “This really continued the process of cooperation that we have had with the Pakistani team throughout. We need to be absolutely thorough and clear and ensure if there is any ambiguity in anyone’s statements we should clear up that ambiguity as soon as we can.”The Pakistan team are free to go and are on their way to the airport. There is no reason at all why they shouldn’t leave the island.”All of this, Shields said, was “standard police procedure when you consider any serious crime investigation.” The important thing, he added, “is that we keep an open mind. What we need to do is look at all of the options, all of the suspicions people have.”Sources close to the team told Cricinfo that Mushtaq was questionedabout his nose injury (which is likely to be the one he picked up inpractice before Woolmer’s murder) and Inzamam and Ali about roomchanges.Inzamam told AFP that the questioning was routine and that they hadbeen told by police that they were free to leave for home as plannedlater Saturday. “It was nothing, just one question, nothing special,”Inzamam said. “There have been so many rumours but we are going hometonight and everything is clear. The police said we are free to gohome.””The police are doing their work and they ask lots of guys differentquestions,” Mushtaq told Sky News. “It is not a big issue, just amatter of timing. It was little things they wanted to know. We have to follow police policies and everything is calm and OK. Weare supporting the police. We are leaving and they wanted to cleareverything up.” reported that investigators were yet to hand over Woolmer’s room on the 12th floor to hotel authorities and that the police were examining the electronic key to Woolmer’s room to find out the number of times the room was opened in the few hours leading to his death.Sayed Hafiz, first secretary at the Pakistani embassy in Washington,attended the media briefing at the Pegasus Hotel. He said: “The team was never under detention. They are understandably traumatised. But this is a serious crime, and we wanted to cooperate. We’re very satisfied with the professionalism shown by theJamaican police.”He added that Murray Stevenson, the trainer, and Asad Mustafa, the chiefoperations officer, would be staying back in Jamaica – Stevenson to escortWoolmer’s body back to South Africa, and Mustafa to “tie up any looseends.”Neither he nor the diplomats would say for sure whether the players wouldbe asked back to Jamaica if required – “We’ll cross that bridge when wecome to it,” said Shields – and it’s still unclear when the coroner willallow for Woolmer’s body to leave the country.Shields said that DNA swabs and fingerprints had been taken from severalpeople, apart from the Pakistan players, and added that CCTV footage wasbeing analysed by his officers. He was also in touch with a representativeof the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit, saying: “We will look at all theoptions.””Everybody in some ways is a suspect,” said Shields, when asked if he andhis investigating team had made any headway in identifying the culprit.”There are no clear suspects at the moment.”