Pakistan squad quizzed by police

The entire Pakistan cricket squad had their fingerprints taken and were questioned under caution by Jamaican police yesterday over the mysterious death of the team's coach Bob Woolmer which officers are treating as suspicious.

Detectives conducted the interviews and fingerprinted the Pakistan players and managers in a room in the Pegasus, the 17-storey hotel where Bob Woolmer was found unconscious in the bathroom of room 374 on Sunday. They were individually quizzed by officers in a development which Pakistan authorities insisted was "standard procedure".

But rumours continued to swirl about marks allegedly found on Woolmer's body. Several reports from media outlets suggested that he was found with broken neck bones which was interpreted as a sign of a violent struggle or strangulation.

It is known that the police have asked a pathologist from Florida to add firepower to the forensic investigation and provide a second opinion on the results of the post mortem.

Detectives said they were unable to give a definitive picture of the cause of death until final tests on tissue and other body samples were released. Forensics teams swabbed the door of Woolmer's room and the bathroom.

The questioning of the Pakistani team delayed the team's departure from the capital Kingston to a retreat in Montego Bay. Pervez Mir, the spokesman for the team, said that each member had been cautioned at the start and told that giving false testimony would lead to prosecution. But he stressed that was normal under Jamaican law.

Questions followed a set formula, Mir said, addressing their movements after Saturday's shock defeat to tournament newcomers Ireland; when they last saw Woolmer and their last conversation with him; and anything that they noticed about his behaviour or state of health.

"Naturally this isn't very pleasant but police inquiries have to be followed because it is the law of the land," he said.

The manager of the Pakistan team, Talat Ali, emerged from the room used by the police for their investigations, his fingers stained with black fingerprinting ink. "We are co-operating and want to find out the facts," he said.

He added that the impression that members of the team were the "chief suspects" was false. In the absence of clarification from police, pressure mounted on the force to clear up the confusion and end the rumours.

The investigation is being led by Mark Shields, who is second in command of the force.

Mir said that Shields should make public what had driven him to declare on Tuesday that the death was "suspicious". The speculation was proving very distressing for the players and for Woolmer's family, he said.

A Jamaican paper, the Daily Observer, claimed that bones in the lower part of his face were broken and that there were marks on the throat. London-based forensics experts, however, cautioned that such marks could be caused by a traumatic fall or by a violent heart attack.

The Pakistan team had been due to fly to Montego Bay at lunchtime to escape press attention at a retreat made available to them by the Jamaican government. They are scheduled to leave the country on Saturday for Pakistan, via London. Mr Woolmer's body was due to travel with them as far as London and then on to his family in Cape Town, although whether the body will be released is now in doubt.