The unholy relationship between sport and betting

When Jamaican police said that Pakistan's cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, had been murdered, one thought would have raced through many south Asian cricket fans' minds: match-fixing.

Even when most of the world still believed Mr Woolmer had probably died of a heart attack, Indians and Pakistanis were already openly speculating. The former Pakistan fast bowler, Sarfraz Nawaz, even went public with claims that Mr Woolmer had been murdered by what he called the "match-fixing mafia", and that several south Asian bookmakers were in the Caribbean and in touch with some of the teams.

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Within hours of yesterday's announcement, the Jamaican police had to deny reports that they had arrested a suspect who was "in contact" with the Indian and Sri Lankan teams.

So far, there is no real evidence to support the idea that Mr Woolmer's death had anything to do with match-fixing. Precious little is known about what happened that night in room 374 at the Pegasus Hotel.

The fact that suspicion has so rapidly zeroed in on illegal bookmakers has something to do with how badly cricket has already got itself embroiled with match-fixing, which almost tore the game apart in 2000.

It also has something to do with a series of events that could easily just be coincidences - but which have sent conspiracy theorists into overdrive. It was the confessions in 2000 of the South African captain, Hansie Cronje, that he had accepted bribes to "forecast" matches, that blew the lid on cricket's biggest scandal. The South African coach at the time was Bob Woolmer.

South Africa wasn't the only country hit by the match-fixing scandal. The same year, two senior players were banned for life for match-fixing by another country: Pakistan, whose team Mr Woolmer was coaching when he died.

Suspicions are widespread that illegal bookmakers have targeted the cricket World Cup before, in England in 1999.

And, just weeks ago, another player was accused by Indian police of giving information to bookmakers in India: Marlon Samuels, who comes from Jamaica, the island where Woolmer was killed.

As if all that was not enough, Cronje himself died suddenly in 2002 in a plane crash after hitching a ride on a cargo plane.

No one has ever suggested that Mr Woolmer was remotely connected to match-fixing. On the contrary, he emerged blameless from the original scandal in 2000. But some have suggested that his proximity to Cronje and to the Pakistani cricket establishment could have meant he knew secrets.

Mr Woolmer was about to publish a book, and it has been suggested someone may have believed they needed to silence him - although those involved in the book insist he had no plans to write about match-fixing.

All that may be the stuff of conspiracy theories. Kingston, Jamaica, is a city plagued by a high murder rate, and there were fears cricketers could be embroiled in the local violence long before the World Cup got under way.

Mr Woolmer could also have been targeted by a fan upset by Pakistan's loss to minnows Ireland.

But the fears that match-fixing is still affecting cricket are not going away. It is not unusual in Asia for the stakes in the betting business to get so high that people will go to extraordinary lengths to fix results of sports. Only this week, staff at the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club's Happy Valley found tranquilliser darts aimed at the track and linked to what appeared to be a remote control.

In India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, cricket is the only sport that matters. In India, betting is illegal except at race courses, but there is a flourishing underground betting scene, and it chiefly revolves around cricket. Punters can bet not only on the outcome of matches, but on details such as batting order. Bookmakers who know these details in advance stand to make a handsome profit - and anyone who can fix the result of a match can make a fortune.

What emerged about the nexus between illegal bookmakers and cricketers in 2000 suggested that they had penetrated the sport to the highest levels. By the end of the year, not only Cronje but also the former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin and the Pakistan star batsman Salim Malik had been banned for life - although Azharuddin's ban was later lifted.

Match-fixing scandals

* Andrés Escobar, a Colombian defender, was murdered shortly after his return from the 1994 World Cup, where his own-goal saw Colombia knocked out by the USA in the first phase. In the most believed explanation, a drug cartel had bet large sums of money that Colombia would advance

* In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. Recounted in book and film form as 'Eight Men Out'

* In 2000, Hansie Cronje, then highly regarded captain of the South African cricket team, admitted to receiving more than £70,000 from bookies to influence his team's performance. He received a lifetime ban. He died in a plane crash in 2002

* The Italian Football Federation said in 2000 it had found eight players guilty of match-fixing

* In 2005, referee Robert Hoyzer admitted to fixing a first-round German cup tie, as well as several others. He went on to implicate other referees and several players. A Croatian betting syndicate had paid Hoyzer to fix matches

* British racehorse Flockton Grey was entered into his first race on 29 March 1982 at Leicester race course. As a debutant from an unremarkable yard, the horse was priced at 10-1. Owner Ken Richardson and trainer Stephen Wiles backed their horse with £20,000 - and substituted it with a far better horse, Good Hand, which won the race.