Pakistan coach's death reveals cricket's dark side

The match-fixing theory may be more likely. Woolmer was planning to publish a book, and some say it could have exposed practices that have poisoned the game. But the cowriter of Woolmer's autobiography, Ivo Tennant, said the book wouldn't cover that topic.

In recent years, several international players have been banned for fixing parts of games for shadowy bookmakers. The Pakistan team has been scrutinized by match-fixing probes before, most notably during the 1999 World Cup when they sensationally lost to cricketing minnow Bangladesh.

Cricket's ruling body, the International Cricket Council, launched a probe seven years ago that concluded match-fixing was rife. Since then, high-profile members of the cricket community say things have improved but the practice persists.

Matthew Thacker, publisher of All Out Cricket magazine, says that Pakistan often falls under suspicion because the team is full of unpredictable talent. "They can beat the best and lose to the very worst and have players who sometimes look as though they aren't trying," he says. The team has also been plagued in the past year by separate scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs and tampering with the ball.

But it's not just Pakistan. Perhaps the most stunning episode of match-fixing involved South African captain Hansie Cronje, who was banned for life in 2000 after admitting to taking six-figure sums for fixing games.

In a curious coincidence, Woolmer was coach of the South African team at the time. He was never implicated.

Allan Donald, Cronje's teammate under Woolmer, told the BBC that if his former coach was killed "because he knew too much and was about to blow the whistle on some bookmakers, then this thing will be even more sad."

Could Woolmer have discovered a ploy by his charges to throw the game against Ireland? Odds quoted before the game were 50-1 and higher for an Ireland win.

Pakistanis are skeptical. "There's no way that someone can kill their own coach," says Feda Hussein, a gas station attendant in Islamabad. Shazi Malik, a lawyer from Lahore, leaves a little more room for doubt. "I just hope it wasn't one of the players. "That would just destroy cricket in Pakistan."

The third theory revolves around gambling-related revenge. It is thought that the 1994 murder of Colombian soccer player Andres Escobar might have been orchestrated by angry gambling interests who lost big money on the game after Escobar accidentally scored a goal for the other team. The Asian subcontinent is rich in large betting syndicates with links to menacing criminal groups. But Jamaican police have refused to speculate on whether Woolmer's murder was similarly motivated.

Woolmer's murder illustrates the life-or-death stakes at play in international sport, where money and ambition form a potent cocktail. Some, including Mr. Donald, have called for the World Cup to be canceled, but with a multi-million-dollar tournament at stake, cricket officials have vowed it will run to completion in late April.

But some fans now say that continuing the Cup is, well, "just not cricket."

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