Cricket fans lay a wreath during a memorial service for coach Bob Woolmer at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore in April last year. Woolmer died one month earlier during the Jamaica leg of the Cricket World Cup. - REUTERS

JUST WHEN most cricket fans thought the buzz around Bob Woolmer had subsided, an Indian film-maker has incorporated the Pakistan cricket coach's mysterious death into his new film.

Jannat (Hindi for Paradise) is the title of the film which was recently released in India. It is the brainchild of Mahesh Bhatt, one of the leading lights in the Indian film industry, popularly known as Bollywood.

Revealed plans for movie

Mahesh, who Indian film critics say is known for his 'sensitive human dramas', spoke of his plans to make a movie on cricket last year. It would have romance (typical of Bollywood flicks) with the intrigue of the game (match-fixing, a dead coach) thrown in for good measure.

"I'm definitely making the film on the entire Woolmer episode though we will not name him anywhere in the story," Bhatt was quoted by Indian media as saying last year. "We are using a fictional situation, but the people will see the obvious connection."

Jannat opened early this month to mixed reviews but reports out of India say audience response has been good.

"Jannat lacks the resonance and staying power of some of Bhatt's earlier films," read one review on India's NewKerala.com website.

Found unconscious

Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his room at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on March 18, 2007, one day after Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup in a shock defeat to Ireland at Sabina Park.

His death triggered a wave of speculation. Some say he was killed by bookmakers from India or Pakistan who blamed him for Pakistan's early exit.

Initially, Jamaica's government pathologist, India-born Dr Ere Sheshaiah, said Woolmer was strangled. Three pathologists from Canada, Britain and South Africa said the former England player died of natural causes.

In November, a coroner's inquest returned an open verdict in the case.