Ireland's celebrations come to halt with Woolmer's death

London, Mar 20 (UNI) Celebrations came to an abrupt halt for Ireland, who sent Bob Woolmer's Pakistan crashing out of the world cup, and the entire team was in a state of disbelief over the sudden death of the man who promptly congratulated them as ''deserving winners''.

Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his hotel room and later died in a hospital in Kingston on Sunday.

Recalling with different perspective, the fateful Pool D match, which might have led to death of the coach, Irish cricketer Andrew White said, ''One of the first men to congratulate us on our shock victory was the Pakistan coach himself, Bob Woolmer.

''I shook hands with him as he declared, 'You deserved to win, enjoy the moment.' Less than a day later, the very sad news filtered through that the same gentleman had died suddenly.'' He said they were still in party mode when the news of Woolmer's death came in.

''The Ireland team travelled to the supporters' resort of Ochos Rios where the party went into overdrive.

''However, as we shared time with them and our families on the beach the following day, the sad news about Woolmer filtered through. And that really brought us back to earth with a bump,'' White wrote in his coloumn in BBC Sport.

Equally aggrieved was Irish coach Adrian Birrell who said, ''I spoke to him after the game and he was totally gracious in defeat -- he made no excuses and praised Ireland's performance.

''He has made a huge contribution to world cricket.'' UNI