Many questions remain in Woolmer case

Robert Craddock looks at the developments of the Bob Woolmer investigation in the Courier-Mail, asking a number of questions and profiling Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner of police.

Shields is known as a man of understatement in his dangerous home city, one who does not light fires for the sake of it. Shields knew the instant he walked into a press conference and announced there was suspicion that Woolmer had been murdered that he was destroying Kingston's Cricket World Cup.

He was detonating cricket's version of an atom bomb and sentencing match events to small print. Suddenly, nothing else mattered in the tournament.

News Ltd papers quote an unnamed South African player saying: “If they lay a murder charge, they may as well call the tournament off.”

The Guardian’s Omar Waraich runs through some possible causes of Woolmer’s death, but in the same paper Neil Manthorp says his passing is unlikely to be connected to the upcoming release of a new book.

In England’s Daily Telegraph Ben Fenton looks at the role of Shields, a former Scotland Yard detective, in the investigation.

Cahal Milmo of The Independent writes Woolmer made little effort to disguise his rapidly growing dissatisfaction with the side he managed.

Chloe Saltau writes in The Age about a real-life Caribbean mystery.

The Australian carries a report of the suspicious circumstances of Woolmer’s death and who they expect will be interviewed.