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‘Apologise for suspecting Pakistani cricketers in Woolmer death’

By IANS,

Karachi : Pakistan’s Sports Minister Pir Aftab Shah Jilani Friday asked the Jamaican police to issue an apology to Pakistan for wrongfully treating their cricketers as suspects for the alleged murder of coach Bob Woolmer during the 2007 World Cup.

Almost two years after the Woolmer incident that shocked the cricket world, Jilani said the Jamaican police committed a major blunder by declaring that Woolmer was murdered and then carried out intense interrogation of Pakistani cricketers.

“The Jamaican police should apologise for the way it treated our players,” he said.

Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room in Kingston on March 18, just a day after Pakistan lost to minnows Ireland and were knocked out of the World Cup.

After initially declaring that Woolmer was murdered, the Jamaican police investigated the case for several months before conceding that the former England Test cricketer died of natural causes.

Jilani also stressed the need to find the real reasons behind the Oval Test fiasco. In the summer of 2006, Pakistan became the first team to forfeit a Test after their captain Inzamam-ul-Haq refused to take the field after tea on the fourth day of the Test against England in protest against alleged ball-tampering charge leveled against the

tourists by the umpires.