Mark Shields: ICC had ruled out Woolmer match-fixing link

Jamaica's Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields has testified at an inquest that the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Team had ruled out a match-fixing link in connection with the death of Bob Woolmer, the former Pakistan coach.

"The ICC anti-corruption and security team undertook to investigate if there were any allegations of corruption that may have contributed to Woolmer's death," Shields said. "And over the period of March, throughout the investigation, we were in frequent dialogue with the team, which informed us that they found no evidence linking the death of Mr Woolmer to cricket."

Shields, who led the Jamaica Police's investigations, said the ICC team had conducted their own investigations into Woolmer's death. He also said that there was no link between a book Woolmer was planning to write and his death and that he had visited Cape Town in May where he interviewed Woolmer's family and professor Tim Noakes, co-author of the proposed book.

Though Shieds said he didn't see the draft, he said all concerned told him it contained nothing about match-fixing. "I trusted the integrity of professor Noakes and the Woolmer family that Mr Woolmer was not writing about the dirty side of cricket," he was quoted in the Jamaica Gleaner. "I concluded that the manuscript was about the technical side of cricket."