Pakistan terror attack: it’s not cricket

UP to a dozen gunmen ambushed the Sri Lankan cricket team’s bus in Pakistan this morning. Six police officers and two bystanders were killed in the pre-meditated attack, while six of Sri Lanka’s cricketers were injured.

None of the cricketers was critically injured in the attack, although Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana were sent to hospital, with a gunshot wound to the leg and shrapnel chest wound respectively.

In an interview with Australian radio, Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara praised his team’s bus driver. He said:

“Suddenly everyone just said hit the deck, quick, someone’s shooting. And we just hit the floor of the bus and stayed there and we heard the bullets hitting the bus and a few explosions.

“But, you know, we had an amazing driver who just kept driving the bus straight through all of that to the ground and that’s probably what saved us.”

It’s a great shame that it takes a tragic incident like this for cricket to make the front pages (it’s on the home page of the NY Times, for example). It will be interesting to see how the major cricketing nations and the ICC treat Pakistan in the light of the attack. Pakistan’s status as co-hosts of the next World Cup, scheduled for 2011, is certainly under threat.

When asked about plans for the World Cup, ICC president David Morgan said: “Things will have to change dramatically in Pakistan, in my opinion, if any of the games are to be staged there.”

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, March 2009 | In: Sports Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink