CRICKET:Former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes, and was not murdered as initially suspected, Jamaican police said yesterday, bringing to an embarrassing close a three-month investigation that had gripped the cricket world.

Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room in Kingston on March 18th after his highly-rated team lost to little fancied Ireland in the Cricket World Cup. An initial postmortem found signs he had been strangled, triggering speculation he had been murdered by an irate fan or an illegal gambling syndicate. But reports from three independent pathologists and a toxicology test showed the 58-year-old former England international cricketer had died of natural causes and had no poisons in his body, said Jamaican Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas.

"The JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) has accepted these findings and has closed its investigation into the death of Bob Woolmer," Thomas said, reading from a prepared statement.

The statement did not immediately clarify why Woolmer died, but media reports have referred to his ill health and speculated that he suffered from diabetes.

In South Africa, Woolmer's widow thanked the Jamaican police for the way they conducted the investigation in the face of intense media scrutiny.