Jamaican police have confirmed that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled to death and have opened a murder inquiry.
Woolmer (58) was found unconscious by staff at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on Sunday morning, the day after Pakistan's shock defeat to Ireland in the cricket World Cup. He was taken to hospital where he later died.
Police revealed on Tuesday that they were treating the former England batsman's death as "suspicious".
Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields addresses a Kingston news conference
They initially stopped short of saying he had been murdered but, at a press conference yesterday evening, revealed Woolmer's death "was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation".
"Bob was a large man - it would have taken some force," deputy commissioner Mark Shields said. "Hopefully we will bring the killers to justice as soon as possible. We will use every energy we possibly have to track down the killers."
Mr Shields said there was no sign of forced entry into the Pakistan cricket coach's hotel room and his possessions were undisturbed.
Mr Shields dismissed reports made on a Pakistani TV station that a non-Jamaican national had been arrested.
There is growing media speculation that Woolmer had fallen victim to a "betting mafia".
Asked about these suggestions, Mr Shields said: "Everything you have heard would be a line of inquiry."
The police have taken the hotel's electronic security recordings and are awaiting results of toxicology and other tests.
Pakistan's cricketers and team officials will be swabbed for DNA today by police as a routine exercise today. They were fingerprinted yesterday and were supposed to undergo DNA tests on the same day, but police allowed them travel to Montego Bay, where they are staying at the behest of the Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller.
The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board has said that no Pakistani player is a suspect in the murder. Dr Nasim Ashraf said the team members had been questioned by Jamaican police as part of a routine investigation into Mr Woolmer's death.
The sport's governing body said the World Cup would continue despite Woolmer's murder.
Pakistan's government said today it plans to honour Mr Woolmer with the prestigious civil award 'Sitara-i-Imtiaz' for his services to cricket.
President Pervez Musharraf said: "Pakistan cricket shall forever be indebted to his services and this nation will always remember him for the joys he brought into the lives of millions of Pakistanis."