Woolmer's book to be published despite widow's plea

According to co-author Tim Noakes, professor of sports science at Cape Town University, a special section on match-fixing has also been included in the book, though originally, the book was about his time as coach of Pakistan and did not include anything on match-fixing.

However, there had been speculation that the aspect of corruption in the game would be added to the book prior to its printing. Rumours have also been doing the rounds that Woolmer's murder had something to do with corruption. There was talk that Woolmer was silenced, as he was about to blow the lid off some players' involvement in match fixing.

Noakes said he intended to increase the print run from 5,000 to 100,000.

Woolmer was previously in charge of South Africa when then-captain Hansie Cronje accepted money from bookmakers to throw a game against England in 2000.

Just a day before his death, Pakistan suffered a shock loss to Ireland, which led to their early World Cup exit, and which some commentators have speculated could have been fixed.

Noakes said though he believed Pakistan's loss to Ireland could have been fixed; he doesn't believe Woolmer would have played any part in it.

"The easiest view to take is that Bob was murdered because of match-fixing, but, as coach, he was totally irrelevant. Match-fixers kill match-fixers and the fact that his computer was not taken from his room does not add up. So it has to be something else," Noakes said.

Noakes added Woolmer would have agreed to his additions, which aims to look at one-day games played by South Africa rather than his time as coach of Pakistan.

"We would have mentioned match-fixing if Bob and I had thought in the past [that] there was a science about it. Part of the reason is to shed new light on Cronje," the Scotsman quoted Noakes as saying.

Elsewhere, Woolmer's wife, Gill Woolmer has said that publishing her husband's memoirs now will only cause more upset, and the book should never see the light of day.

"I was aware Bob was planning to write an account of his time with Pakistan, but that was intended to be after he had finished coaching them. It is better if that book never appears now. If it is going to cause upset it is not worth publishing," Gill said.

She further said her husband was not intending to write anything about match fixing or bookmakers. (ANI)

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