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# It's just not cricket
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/18826/
- Published: 2007-03-22T15:03:24.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:35:59.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**by Tan Copsey**

Last week this blog featured a little post on political cricket. I delved, rather briefly, into the odd and slightly seamy underside of another global sporting tournament. Despite cataloguing a litany of bizarre and in some cases, downright suspicious goings on, including match fixing, suicide, mysterious global gambling syndicates, I could not have predicted the bizarre events of the last week.

In the wake of a very surprising defeat to Ireland and their ejection from the tournament, Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died – or as the Guardian put it today ‘he was died’. The event is being treated as suspicious by police, though leaks in the investigation have led to the Jamaican Gleaner [being less equivocal](http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070322/lead/lead1.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) – suggesting that police are now treating the death as a homicide.

This has led to some rather [fantastic speculation](http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1086451&ref=opendemocracy.net) – including reports on DNA India that ex-Bombay mafia don ‘[Dawood Ibrahim](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawood%5FIbrahim?ref=opendemocracy.net)'s betting racket could be involved’. Meanwhile it is still impossible to guess the full repercussions of these events. The fact that they happened at a time when Pakistan is in the midst of a [serious political crisis](http://www.asiaburning.com/entry/heated-situation-in-pakistan/?ref=opendemocracy.net) doesn’t help though. Political cricket continues.