MURRAY Stevenson, the former fitness trainer of the Pakistan cricket team, said yesterday that coach Bob Woolmer told him that he was planning to retire from the international game after the World Cup.

Stevenson, one of three persons to testify at the coroner's inquest into the former England player's death, said Woolmer told him of his plans just minutes after Pakistan were eliminated from the tournament on March 17 by outsiders Ireland.

"He told me he had two bottles of champagne in his room at the hotel and that we would drink it on Wednesday when the team played Zimbabwe, because it would be his last game in international cricket," Stevenson said.

Woolmer was pronounced dead at the University Hospital of the West Indies the following day, after staff found him unconscious in the bathroom of his room at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

Seshaiah cause of death

Government pathologist, Dr. Ere Seshaiah, gave asphyxia caused by manual strangulation associated with cypermethrin poison as the cause of death.

Stevenson, a South African, was originally booked in room 375 on the 12th floor of the Jamaica Pegasus where the Pakistan team were staying. Woolmer was staying across the hall in room 374.

Stevenson said he checked out of the room on March 17 because there was too much noise from a nearby venue and he could not get any rest he checked into room 390 on the 14th floor, Stevenson said he retained the key to his previous room. He said he slept in room 375 on the evening of March 17 because noise from a party taking place in front of the hotel prevented him from getting any rest.

He said he last saw Woolmer alive at 7:30 p.m. on March 17 in the elevator of the Jamaica Pegasus. Stevenson said he was alerted by Pakistan team management at 11:30 a.m. the following day that he should go to Woolmer's room as the coach was not feeling well.

Stevenson was one of 22 members of the Pakistan team interrogated by the police. He was also fingerprinted and swabs for DNA taken from him.

Neither matched items taken from Woolmer's hotel room.

Meanwhile, Michael Hall, director of cricket operations for the Cricket World Cup, testified that there was no evidence that the Pakistanis may have been involved in match-fixing.