Pakistan players to undergo DNA tests in Woolmer probe
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (Reuters) - Pakistan's cricketers and team officials will be swabbed for DNA on Friday by police as a routine exercise a day after police announced their coach Bob Woolmer was strangled.
The Pakistan World Cup squad and management were finger-printed on Thursday at the Kingston Pegasus hotel, where Woolmer was murdered on Sunday.
They were supposed to undergo DNA tests on the same day but police allowed them to catch a flight to Montego Bay, where they are staying at the behest of the Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller.
"It's one of those routine things they do, at least here in Jamaica as far as I'm informed," Pakistan media manager Pervez Mir told Reuters.
"It's some sort of a swab that they put in your mouth and then put it in a plastic container. It takes about 25 seconds." There has been no indication from police that any of the team are suspects.
The case has become one of the biggest-ever stories to hit cricket. Woolmer was found unconscious on his bathroom floor on Sunday morning by a maid.
He was pronounced dead in a local Kingston hospital at 1214pm (1614 GMT). Police announced on Tuesday they were treating the death as suspicious.
Police said on Thursday it was now a murder case and that there may be more than one assailant, or a very powerful individual.
Woolmer's death came the morning after Pakistan, one of the favorites to win the World Cup, were eliminated having lost to tournament debutantes Ireland.
The result was one of the biggest shocks in the 32-year history of the tournament.
This year's World Cup, the first to be played in the Caribbean, culminates in the April 28 final in Bridgetown, Barbados.
