Dismissing Bob Woolmer's 'natural death' theory as a media speculation, the Jamaican Police stuck to its stance that the former Pakistan cricket coach had been murdered in his Kingston hotel during the World Cup.

The police statement came in reaction to a media report that claimed that the Scotland Yards sleuths, who assisted local police in the death probe, had concluded that Woolmer died of natural causes and not manual strangulation, as claimed by the Jamaican Police.

In the statement, the Jamaican Police dismissed the claim and said such media speculation was likely to cause more distress to the bereaved Woolmer family, besides hampering the probe.

Insisting that Woolmer had been murdered, Jamaican Police spokesman Karl Angell said, "That will remain our position until the results of the investigation are known."

He said the police were conducting an extensive and "thoroughly professional" investigation into the circumstances surrounding Woolmer's death.

"This has included a request to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service in London to conduct a review of the investigation," he said in the statement.

"The review included an independent verification of the pathology and toxicology analyses that had been conducted in Jamaica."

Angell also confirmed that Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields and Deputy Superintendent Colin Pinnock had met the Metropolitan Police review team and the pathology and forensic experts. Both Shields and Pinnock are now in Cape Town to meet Woolmer's wife Gill to update her on the progress of the investigation.