Stani Army

Personally, I have mixed feelings about Javed Miandad’s re-appointment as Director General of the PCB. He was an advocate of reinstating the banned ICL players and was believed to have good ideas in regards to the direction of domestic cricket in Pakistan. This was all positive. He was also invited by China and Afghanistan to help in basic coaching. Such relationships will hopefully bear fruit in the future as they did when Pakistan helped both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh establish themselves when they were increasingly being isolated and shunned by the other Test playing nations.

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The possibility of the IPL moving offshore brings sadness and perhaps opportunity. Cricket is now so cowed by fear of terrorism that three South Asian nations have had key tournaments disrupted within weeks of the Lahore attacks. While a contest between Pakistan and Bangladesh would have struggled to set the pulse racing, the Indian Premier League managed to enthrall even the most skeptical of cricket fans. Much of that fascination was created by the passion of India’s cricket fans, the biggest losers if the tournament is relocated.

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A week after the Lahore atrocity we are left without answers. Who were these attackers? How did they manage to annihilate the “security” forces? How did they all manage to escape unscathed? Instead of answers, we have witnessed unseemly and offensive posturing from the Pakistan Cricket Board and a perplexing silence from the President of Pakistan, who also happens to be the Patron of the PCB.

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The attack on Sri Lanka’s cricketers has left the world in shock, Pakistan cricket in exile, and cricket across South Asia in jeopardy. The single most edifying feature has been the dignity of Sri Lanka’s cricketers in response to an incident that could have cost them their lives, and caused several of them injuries. But the single most upsetting fact is the role of Pakistan’s security arrangements in enabling this calamity.

Yesterday’s events and the ease with which the attackers rained bullets and then escaped did not equate with “presidential level” security. How could the assailants take on security forces in this manner for many minutes and then flee unharmed? The conclusion that is emerging is that the security arrangements and performance were criminal in their negligence. A view supported today by Chris Broad, a man known for speaking his mind without fear of causing offence.

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Various views and opinions have been sought after the Lahore attack from the likes of David Morgan, Haroon Lorgat, Sharad Pawar, Justin Vaughan, Reg Dickason, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dominic Cork, Angus Fraiser; all of them rightly showing concern for the Sri Lankan team and condemning the attacks but nobody thought of even mentioning the Pakistan people and the future of their cricket team except New Zealand’s captain Daniel Vettori.

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Today’s attack on Sri Lanka’s cricketers is a despicable act, a coward’s agenda. Nobody should lose their life over a game of cricket, and no sportsman, official, or spectator should be injured in pursuit of the game they love.

The sole purpose of this barbaric act is a craving for the oxygen of publicity. There can be little political or strategic mileage to be gained by an attack on sportsmen. Indeed, we can only hope that such mindless violence will deeply damage the cause of the perpetrators, and precipitate their rapid downfall.

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While batsmen were licking their lips, spectators, commentators and bowlers alike can’t have enjoyed the recent Test matches we’ve witnessed in the West Indies and Pakistan. Boring encounters on lifeless tracks have brought the issue of pitch preparation to the fore.

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