Cricket:The book Bob Woolmer was working on when he was murdered will have a section on match-fixing added to it prior to publication, its co-author has revealed.
Tim Noakes, formerly South Africa's team doctor and a professor of sports science at Cape Town University, also confirmed the print run on the book is to be increased from the planned 5,000 copies to 100,000.
The discovery of Woolmer's body, found strangled in his Jamaica hotel room on March 18th, almost immediately sparked rumours he was set to blow the whistle on gambling cartels involved in cricket.
That was quickly denied, with the coaching manual the 58-year-old Pakistan coach was writing said to contain no such allegations.
But all that is set to change, with a scientist, Thomas C. Gilfillan, recruited to examine the data of all South Africa's one-day matches in the 1990s and beyond.
During much of that period, they were captained by Hansie Cronje and coached by Woolmer.
Gilfillan, himself a South African, believes that by examining the form of both sides, it is possible to predict the outcome of 70 per cent of matches and that, in the remaining 30 per cent, the weaker side won.
He is looking at events in these matches, such as bowling changes and patterns of scoring, which would arouse suspicion.
"Gilfillan will have a range of probabilities of matches fixed,"
Noakes told
the Times. "Part of the reason is to shed new light on
Cronje."
Noakes insisted the additional material is something Woolmer would have agreed to.
"We would have mentioned match-fixing if Bob and I had thought in the past there was a science about it," he said.
"Bob was editing the original 600 pages, of which he wrote 80
per cent, a week before he died and the page proofs arrived at the
Pegasus Hotel in Kingston the day
after his death.
"So they were not the manuscripts said to have been stolen from his room. I think that was a red herring."
Noakes is sceptical of the notion Woolmer's murder was related to match-fixing but believes it is possible Pakistan's shock World Cup exit at the hands of Ireland - the day before Woolmer's murder - could have been fixed.
He said: "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.
"My point is that the ICC (International Cricket Council) should be looking at matches in the past which could have been fixed.
"In horse racing, you back the horse which is heavily favoured
in the last
hour before the race.
"If it is the case that, as reported, the odds on Ireland beating Pakistan last month changed from 500-1 to 8-1 shortly before the start, then that match was probably fixed."
Woolmer's widow Gill has given permission for the book to go ahead.
Money raised will go to the Bob Woolmer Trust, on which Noakes, Barry Richards and Jonty Rhodes, the former South Africa batsmen, sit as trustees.