The body had been expected to leave Kingston on either Friday or Saturday for Cape Town, South Africa.

"The police met with the coroner (Patrick Murphy) here on Friday and it was decided that the body must be detained until the inquiry is held," said a police spokesman.

The former England player, 58, had been found unconscious in his room at a Kingston hotel last Sunday and he died later in hospital.

Jamaican police were still awaiting results on Friday of scientific tests on the body which could give vital clues to his murder.

Toxicology and histology (study of body tissues) tests were carried out on the body of Woolmer earlier this week. The initial autopsy initially proved "inconclusive", police said.

"We have still not received the results of the tests," police spokesman Karl Angell said. "We cannot at this stage tell you when the results will become available, but as soon as they are, we will pass them on to the media."

Jamaican police said on Thursday that Woolmer had died of strangulation and that his death was being treated as murder.

The killing of one of the best coaches in the world has cast a pall on the tournament which is being played in the Caribbean for the first time and culminates in the Barbados final on April 28.