Bob Woolmer

Karachi: Pakistan’s cricket authorities on Tuesday heaved a sigh of relief after the announcement that former coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes but stopped short of confirming whether they would file a libel suit against the Jamaican police for claiming that it was a murder.

“I can’t comment on whether we will be going for legal action. But yes, it is a big relief for us that this issue is finally closed. It signals the end of a traumatic period for our players and board,” PCB spokesman Ehsan Malik said.

“What we do from here onwards needs to be decided. But there is no doubt our players went through a lot of stress and pressure. There was so much speculation about the case and it just dragged on not seeming to end for us,” he added.

Former captain Inzamam-ul Haq, however, said his players should not take legal action over the way they were treated after Woolmer’s death.

The Pakistan players were questioned, finger printed, asked to give DNA tests and detained in Kingston for 11 days after Woolmer’s death on March 18.

Inzamam, who stepped down as captain shortly after Woolmer’s death, said he did not believe that taking court action would help anybody.

“What is done is done because the trauma we suffered cannot be erased from our memories,” he said.

“A nightmare is over for us. But the scars will not go away so easily. We co-operated with the Jamaican police but we were left alone to fend for ourselves and that still hurts.”

Inzamam said he and the other players had always believed the death was natural.

“Bob had ailments and the circumstances of his death were such that we thought ‘why would anyone want to murder him?’ He was a peace-loving and friendly man with no enemies,” said Inzamam.

Present captain Shoaib Malik said the team had co-operated with the police because they wanted the truth to come out.

“We knew they were wrong when they talked about murder,” he said.

Senior batsman Mohammed Yousuf said he would still press the board to at least seek some compensation and apology from the Jamaican authorities for making such a big mistake.

“It was terrible what we went through from the day he (Woolmer) died and the day we returned home,” he said.

Former captains Imran Khan, Rashid Latif and Javed Miandad called for the PCB to file for legal damages against the Jamaican police and authorities for unnecessarily tarnishing the image of the Pakistan cricket team.