Woolmer family a picture of dignity amid the drama

By Rico

In the nearly three-month drama of Bob Woolmer mystery death, one shudders to think of a largely silent dramatis personae -- Gill Woolmer and her two sons, Russell and Dale -- who faced the nightmare of their lives with utmost patience and dignity.

Just imagine, to have been told that your husband's/father's death had been caused firstly by natural causes, then by strangulation, then by poisoning, and once more by natural causes. Not to mention the motives ranging from match-fixing to involvement of underworld to religion of Pakistan cricket and what not, will have caused an emotional trauma unimaginable to most of us.

Another dramatis personae, rather the lead actor, the handsome and articulate Jamaica DCP Mark Shields, perhaps tumbled from a possible international fame (in case he had cracked a murder mystery) to a cop whose reputation suddenly nose dived after doing lots of commendable work in the Caribbean – bringing down crime rate – not to speak of other high-profile jobs to his credit while at Scotland Yard.

His alomost everyday sound bytes, from Woolmer's death was 100 per cent murder to appearing for a BBC Panorama, to finally saying that he has no regrets when his boss -- police Commissioner Lucius Thomas – told a stunned world that his charges had acted ''in haste'' while treating Woolmer's death as murder, after three foreign pathologists declared that the Pakistan coach died of ''natural causes''.

''If anybody should ask me why I should resign, I would ask why. We did a thorough investigation. We could not guess and we had to keep an open mind,'' Shields had said though his own establishment and the whole world now seemed to have accepted that Woolmer died of heart attack.

Understandably, Dr Ere Seshaiah, the Indian-born government pathologist on the basis of whose post-mortem report Jamaican police treated the case as murder, stuck to his murder theory but Pakistan Cricket Board and Jamaican opposition members are baying for his head.

Understandably agian, the purportedly botched-up investigation had also invited the wrath of Pakistani past and present cricketers though PCB chief Dr Nashim Ashraf has made it clear that they are not going for any defamation suit.

Shields, interestingly, even tried to take the credit of solving the mystery saying it was he who used science and technology to solve it -- a la Indian official claiming victory even in defeat. The high-profile cop was perhaps let off easily.

The drama, it seems, is over except what Coroner Patrick Murphy had to say about the cause of "natural death."

In the meantime, hats off to Gill Woolmer and her children. Hopefully, they can now grieve in peace and get on with their lives.

(Picture coutesy: VIEWIMAGES)

Shield yourself if you can, Mark

By Kowalski

"When in doubt, mumble.
When in trouble, delegate.
When in charge, ponder."

Well someone should have read out this Murphy's Law to Mark Shields when he started investigating Bob Woolmer's death.

The man is now set to become an international laughing stock for investigating a murder that probably never was and he has only himself to blame for it. After all, nobody asked him to go about giving interviews and fuel speculations while the investigations were on.

His self-contradictory statements, ruling nothing out -- from snake venom to weedkillers, from al Qaeda to Dawood Ibrahim, from diabetes to poisoned champagne -- made a tragic incident look ridiculous. The man's flip-flops damaged the reputations of Pakistani players, who are now hopping mad asking for legal action against Jamaica police.

The entire turn of events might sound hilarious now but imagine the trauma that Woolmer's family and friends have gone through all this while. Not to mention the numerous conspiracy theories that we were subjected to by the media.

But wait a second, Shields is not the only one to be blamed for perhaps one of the biggest international policing blunders in recent history.

I would say a certain Ere Sheshaiah seems to have gotten away with a faux pas of humongous proportions in this case.

For those not aware, he is the Jamaican pathologist of Indian origin who concluded that Woolmer died of manual strangulation.

After all Shields went by an expert report, which clearly stated that the cricket coach had been strangled to death.

But as Murphy's law stated "When in charge, ponder." Instead of being available to the media 24X7 and fuelling speculations, Shields could have taken some time out to think and think hard before calling Woolmer's death a murder.

Who knows perhaps that would have saved him the international humiliation that he will now be subjected to. So, as I see it, the probe may have been messed up by Sheshaiah's report but being the face of the investigation, Shields will be the one to pay the price for this bungle.

Image: muzikmedia.com