Woolmer's e-mail to wife released

Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was a "little depressed" following his team's ouster from the World Cup but he was looking forward to going home, according to an e-mail released on Monday that may have been his final words before his surprise death.

A police official read the e-mail to jurors in the inquest into the death of Woolmer, who was found sprawled on the bathroom floor of his Kingston hotel room on the morning of March 18, a day after Pakistan was upset by Ireland and eliminated from the tournament.

The e-mail, sent hours before his body was found, was sent to his wife, Gill, in Cape Town, South Africa.

"Hi, darling, feeling a little depressed currently as you might imagine," the note begins.

Woolmer, a native South African and highly regarded former player, then went on to critique the performance of his team in the World Cup, which was being held in the Caribbean.

"Our batting performance was abysmal and my worse fears were realised," he wrote. "I could tell the players were for some reason not able to fire themselves up."

The coach said he was relieved that he would not have to travel to Guyana for the next round in the tournament and looked forward to seeing his family in South Africa.

"I hope your day was better but I doubt it as you were probably watching! Not much more to add I am afraid but I still love you lots," he wrote.

Woolmer's death set off a globe-spanning criminal investigation after a Jamaican government coroner declared the coach had been strangled.

Jamaican police called off their probe in June after three foreign pathologists concluded the 58-year-old coach died from natural causes, most likely heart disease.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields, a former Scotland Yard investigator who read the e-mail to jurors, is among the final witnesses in the inquest, which is expected to conclude this week.