This is just not cricket...
For sure it is not... Politics has again redefined the way we live and the way we want our lives to be... It has won again !!! How ever we dislike the fact and shout from the roof tops and that there is no connection in between Sports and Politics, the truth of the matter is that you cannot separate the two from each other. Any body who says the opposite is either completely dishonest or perhaps has nothing else to do in life and hence issues these stupid statements.
For long Sports has been used a major tool to express big political statements in past. The West Block boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980, The Soviets and the Eastern Block reciprocated the gesture by boycotting the Los Angels Olympics in 1984. For a good part of 90's India themselves never allowed it's own cricket team to tour Pakistan. Recently an Israel Tennis Girl was not allowed visa in Dubai Tennis. The fact of today's world is this will continue.
But what happened today was something which goes beyond explanation and the mundane statements which has started to trickle post that episode. Never in past has cricket faced this sort of Crisis and I just wonder it will not be a same again. Cricket has lost it's innocence and gone are those days when the Oxford will use the sentence " This is not Cricket "
As I read the story of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, I also mourned the imminent death of international cricket in Pakistan. This deadly attack simply means no international team will be willing to come and play any sport in Pakistan. What is most embarrassing is the fact that the attack was targeted at a team that was trying to help Pakistani cricket and cricket-crazed fans by agreeing to tour in a time of dire crises.
Kumar Sangakkara, Ajhanta Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana are injured and although their lives are out of danger, it was most unfortunate that these most sporting of cricketers had to face this. Only last week, during the Karachi Test, former England fast bowler Dominic Cork and Sri Lankan coach Trevor Bayliss spoke about the fool-proof security arrangements in Pakistan and pleaded international sides to come and play cricket here. What must they be thinking and doing now? Eating their words, and packing their bags to board the next flight home, I suppose.
The least the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistan government can do now is issue a national, government-level apology to the Sri Lankan team and the people of Sri Lanka for this unfortunate incident – a bit more than the PCB chief saying ‘we’re assessing the situation.’
Pakistani fans can pretty much say goodbye to international cricket after this attack and dare I say, even prepare for a total boycott of all sports events in the country for the next few months or perhaps a year or two also.
