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.
Brave Sri Lanka did not deserve this insult, and all sympathies are with their players and the officials who have been injured. Questions will inevitably be asked about the security arrangements, despite the regrettable deaths of several policemen. How could such a high profile tour have been allowed to have been ruined in this way? What do Pakistani security guarantees count for?
The least of the consequences of this disaster is that those who have advocated the continuation of international cricket in Pakistan – including me – have been proved wrong. No international team will now visit Pakistan, and the Pakistan Cricket Board should voluntarily arrange all future tours at neutral venues for the next year, may be longer.
This the darkest day in the history of Pakistan cricket and it occurred in a pleasant suburb of Lahore, a once great city of gardens and tranquility, not far from my own family home in Pakistan.
This is the end.
Published with the permission of Dr Kamran Abbasi. Also posted at cricinfo.com
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March 3rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thank you to the Sri Lankan team for their support. My thoughts are with the families of those that were killed.
Questions must be asked. Why were thetre no army/commandos around? Just poor regular policemen
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
The President should be held directly accountable for this.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
The Sri Lankan team did us a favour when others didn’t care, why was the security not better than a few policemen? Where were all the promises of top security? Somebody needs to be held responsible for what was quite clearly a security lapse.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:58 pm
The driver of the van the umpires were travelling in was shot dead in front of them and one Pakistani umpire was shot in the back.
What ever the ICC are saying right now, I don’t think they will let cricket anywhere near Pakistan for a long time.