Woolmer sought Pak writer’s help for book

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer had sought help from a Pakistan cricket journalist to write a book about his experience in charge of the national team...

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer had sought help from a Pakistan cricket journalist to write a book about his experience in charge of the national team, the writer said Saturday.

Osman Samiuddin, Pakistan’s editor of cricket website cricinfo.com said that Woolmer had approached him on September 18 last year via an e-mail.

Woolmer wrote that he wanted the help of writers from Pakistan, South Africa and England, “so that I can cover probably one of the more interesting periods of my cricket career.”

“I shall only start (the book) after the World Cup but I need to show a lot of different perspectives and the culture correctly which is where I had hoped you would come in,” Woolmer wrote in the e-mail, seen by The AP.

“I have not approached a publisher yet so not sure what is in it for anyone at the moment but I believe regardless of the money the story is worth telling and has to be told and in the correct way. I am not a name and shame guy, just the honest facts. Let the punter make up his mind etc.”

Karachi-based Samiuddin shared Woolmer’s e-mail with The AP a day after the international governing body of cricket — International Cricket Council — said it would investigate whether match-fixing was a motive for the slaying of Woolmer, who was strangled after his team was upset by Ireland.

Deputy Police Commissioner in Jamaica, Mark Shields, said police believed more than one person may have killed Woolmer, 58, in his 12th-floor hotel room last Sunday. His team’s humiliating defeat Saturday assured Pakistan’s elimination from the Cricket World Cup.

–RIZWAN ALI