Terror Targets Cricket

The Sri Lankans have returned from their tour of Pakistan looking much like soldiers returning from war, and more than half the team, as well as the coach, were rushed straight to hospital.

This was not cricket.

After India cancelled their tour to Pakistan based on security fears (and attacked savagely by Pakistani cricket fraternity for doing so), Sri Lanka offered to step in and replace India to end Pakistan's long drought of international cricket, boycotted as it was by nations all over the world due to the lawlessness that reigns supreme in the country.

The Lankans were repaid for their generosity with bullets, grenades, and rocket attacks. More than half the team were injured in the terrorist attack on their bus en route to the stadium. They were lucky to be alive after the rocket and grenade attacks missed (although the rain of bullets didn't.) Their Australian coach, two Aussie umpires and an English match referee also escaped death narrowly.

After Pakistan offered "presidential-level security", the Lankans as well as the ICC officials have asked why none of their security detail so much as fired back a single shot at the attackers, who went about their evil work calmly and without fear of reprisal. Questions have also been raised about how the Pakistan team bus was safely out of range at the time, separated by an unusual distance from the bus carrying the foreigners. Pakistan has failed to answer any of these questions, or make any progress in arresting the terrorists, instead adding insult to injury by spending their time either defending themselves or attacking the questioners.

This is the first major terrorist attack on the game of cricket, and one that may have a lasting impact on the game, not only in Pakistan but also the rest of the world. Already, the Indian team in faraway New Zealand has requested and obtained extra security. IPL has been rescheduled, and a couple of international players who signed up to play at exorbitant salaries have expressed doubt about playing in a region so close to Pakistan. If they could cross the sea to rain destruction on Mumbai, they could target cricketers.

India's response to the terror attack in Mumbai has been primarily verbal, with their politicians preferring to take no action. They are unlikely to deal with this new danger any differently. As the pre-eminent cricketing superpower, and a neighbor of those wreaking havoc on their citizens and now their national sport, it is their reponsibility to take the lead in tackling this menace.