'Mushtaq passed champagne to Bob'

Islamabad: The Bob Woolmer murder case has got murkier, as a Pakistani television channel on Thursday has claimed that two champagne bottles, said to have been mixed with poisonous substances was passed on to him by the Pakistan bowling coach Mustaq Ahmed.

Ahmed, who received the bottles from some other person, passed them to Woolmer, ARY TV quoted Pakistan's media manager for the World Cup, Pervez Mir as saying.

Mir also stated that team manager Talat Ali was a witness to it.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, Pervez Mir said, "There were two bottles given to Mushtaq, but he doesn't drink. So he sent it to Woolmer. Mushtaq cannot be looked at as a suspect. Gifting of champagne doesn't mean anything."

According to reports in British media, a rare weedkiller was mixed with the champagne bottles, one o which was left untouched.

ARY TV reported that Ali and the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf declined to comment on it.

"As far as I know Woolmer was not a champagne drinker," Mir added.

According to the channel, Mir stated that Ahmed passed on the two bottles to Woolmer and only Ali and Ahmed knew the identity of the person who handed the bottles.

The bottles were recovered from the Pegasus hotel room of Woolmer who died under mysterious circumstances a day after Pakistan's shocking World Cup defeat at the hands of Ireland.

The TV report also said that one bottle was empty and the other was not used.

Mir said Woolmer used to drink beer and he rarely consumed champagne.

Former leg spinner, Ahmed is an activist of Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic religious outfit, and former skipper Inzamam-ul Haq had come under criticism for taking Ahmed as a bowling coach.

http://www.cricketnext.com/news/mush.../24939-13.html