Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer probably knew the killer who strangled him in his hotel room at the World Cup, Jamaican police said Friday, in a crime that sparked rumours of involvement by match-fixing gangs.

"Clearly he let somebody into his hotel room and it may be that he knew who that person was," Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields told BBC radio in London.

"It seems difficult to believe at this stage it was a complete stranger."

Former England international Woolmer, 58, was found in his room Sunday and declared dead in hospital, a day after Pakistan's shock defeat to minnows Ireland saw the 1992 World Cup winners crash out of this year's competition.

Shields said that police were probing video recordings from the hotel's closed-circuit television cameras but had yet to find anything suspicious. He dismissed rumours that arrests had been made.

Pakistan's players made statements to police and gave DNA samples and fingerprints. Pakistan said it was rushing a senior diplomat from Washington to Jamaica to liaise with the police there.

Jamaican police spokesman Karl Angell told a news conference Thursday that Woolmer had been the victim of foul play.

"The pathologist report states that Mr. Woolmer's death was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation," Angell said.

Shields suggested more than one person may have been involved and said there were no signs of forced entry to Woolmer's room.

"Bob was a large man and therefore it would have taken some significant force to subdue him and cause strangulation, but we do not know at this stage how many people were in the room," he said.

Shockwaves from the killing reverberated through international cricket but organisers insisted the showpiece tournament must go on.

"It's a horrific time for world cricket," said England captain Michael Vaughan.

International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed expressed "a profound sense of shock at the news that his death is being treated as murder," but said the game of cricket "cannot be put off by a cowardly criminal act."

"The best way to do that is for the teams that remain in the tournament to play out a great World Cup, something that will help put the smile back on the face of our great sport," he said in a statement.

There was speculation that the killing was carried out by criminals keen to avoid exposure in claims of match-fixing which may have arisen in a book Woolmer was planning to write.

Pakistan team spokesman Pervez Mir dismissed such suggestions.

"The players as far as I know have not spoken about any match-fixing or any match-fixing incident because there is no question of that," he told British broadcaster Sky News.

Woolmer was coach of South Africa when its former captain Hansie Cronje was bought off by bookmakers in 1996, but was never alleged to have been involved himself.

In cricket-obsessed Pakistan, former fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz said Woolmer had fallen victim to a "gambling mafia."

"Nothing was stolen from Woolmer's (room) except for his diary and papers," he told AFP. "I am not sure about his laptop. But the diary and the papers could only be of interest to bookie mafia."

Woolmer became coach of Pakistan in 2004 and had talked of the stresses of managing one of the most volatile teams in world cricket.

British police confirmed that they have volunteered to help with the investigation, and retired Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Condon was on standby to go to Jamaica. Condon was commissioned by the ICC to write a report into cricketing corruption in 2001.

Woolmer, meanwhile, received tributes from around the world.

"Our hearts go out to his family and we hope that the investigation can get to the bottom of his murder so the perpetrators can be punished," Mahmudur Rahman, chief executive of the Bangladesh cricket board, told AFP.

South African bowling great Allan Donald, who was a friend of Woolmer and played under him at county level and for South Africa, criticised the ICC decision to press on with the tournament.

"I just don't know how this World Cup can continue under the shadow of what's happened," he told BBC radio, but added: "Knowing Bob, he would have wanted this to go ahead."

"I think everyone will continue this World Cup but, at the back of their minds, know that a tragedy took place."

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)