A few days ago, I reported on some of the ups and downs of this year’s cricket World Cup.. namely a few riots, the burning of effigies (again, we really need to catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to the use of effigies), and drunken mischief. All things you expect from an NBA All-Star weekend, but surely not from anything connected to cricket. I’m sorry for judging, but I’ve watched roughly 20 cricket matches in my lifetime, and nothing about it screams drunken debauchery.

So now it has been announced that… not too unlike an NBA All-Star weekend… someone was killed. It wasn’t at a strip club though, and did not involve cricket players “making it rain”, so there are no parallels there… unfortunately for the comedian in me. The fact is that the head coach of Pakistan, who was upset by Ireland the day before he died (I don’t think you need to be Matlock to figure out a connection there), was strangled to death in his hotel room.

Jamaican police launched a murder inquiry on Thursday into the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer at the World Cup, saying he was strangled.

The death on Sunday was “due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation,” according to a police statement read to a news conference at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston where Woolmer was found unconscious before he died on Sunday.

“Bob was a large man — it would have taken some force,” deputy commissioner Mark Shields said. “Hopefully we will bring the killers to justice as soon as possible. We will use every energy we possibly have to track down the killers.”

There was growing media speculation on Thursday that Woolmer had fallen victim to a “betting mafia.”

If the “betting mafia”… damn that sounds corny… is really the guilty party, then Pete Rose should forget the Hall of Fame and just thank the Lord that wasn’t him. Once again, I’m not Matlock… but if I were I might check out deputy commissioner Mark Shields. “Hopefully we will bring the killers to justice as soon as possible. We will use every energy we possibly have to track down the killers.” Um… is it just me, or does that sound a little OJ to anyone else? Insert the word “real” before killers and I’m pretty sure that is almost the Juice’s words verbatim. Not too bad, I just solved a murder mystery before my morning coffee.

• Murder claim rocks cricket showcase (Reuters)

[Editor’s note: all kidding aside, this kind of crap has no place in competitive sport and I really do wish the best for Woolmer’s family.  The International sports community really needs to get their act together because if they don’t we won’t be having many World Cups of anything.]