Woolmer death: a news that’s growing by the hour

John Reidler is from CNN and he says that he was here because of his network’s large presence in Asia. But as a local radio station in Jamaica sticks its neck out and claims that the cause of Woolmer’s death was strangulation, Reidler believes that gradually the story will climb on the top news list in US and all across Europe.

The report from the sidelines of cricket World Cup is progressively generating interest for the non-cricketing nations too.

Maura Alexander of SNTB, a global television news agency, was in the Bahamas covering the chaos surrounding the death of American star Anna Nicole Smith, but a hint of ‘foul play’ in the Woolmer case means she too is among the at least a hundred journalists who ritualistically park themselves at Hotel Pegasus these days.

Even from the cricket-conscious world, it isn’t just the ‘sports guy’ who is at the World Cup. The Guardian had seat at the press box at Sabina Park but now the mainstream reporter Ed Pilkington has one at Pegasus since Woolmer is no longer the concern or prerogative of the sports desk.

“Yes, I landed here this morning since this story has the potential to be big,” he says. He makes a few basic inquires about the World Cup and the case and one does a quick ‘for those who came in late’ kind of recap of things.

Another expected arrival from a non-cricketing publication this morning was that of the The Sun’s New York based correspondent Emily Smith. A partial exodus by the large Indian media contingent from Port of Spain—where the Men in Blue are based—is also on as missing the most mundane updates on the Woolmer story is seen as a ‘miss’.

Within hours of these newly checked in news hounds finding their feet it comes to light that a scoop has been unearthed by a local. Rohan Powell, a 41-year-old with 20 years of print or television experience and several news breaks under his belt, says that his highly reliable sources say Woolmer was strangulated and there happens to be a match-fixing angle to the story.

With information at a premium for the late-comers, Powell becomes the focus of all attention as one sees journalists on either side of the microphone. Later in the evening the Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields enters and gives his usual clarification: “Media can speculate, so I can’t speak of such things, there is nothing to share with you guys right now”.

The scribes without the World Cup media accreditation cards hanging from the neck and more used to dealing with the police than cricketers push forward and try to get something out of Shields, but he sticks to his line. “You can’t get anything out of him,” advises a ‘been here for long’ cricket reporter to the just-arrived general reporter.

Woolmer’s death in the hotel room has seen the coming together of strange couch fellows in the lobby below.