Yesterday's attack on the Sri Lankan team revives memories of the 1972 Olympics Games when 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed by Palestinian gunmen
Yesterday's attack on the Sri Lankan team revives memories of the 1972 Olympics Games when 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed by Palestinian gunmen
Yesterday's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has revived horrific memories of last November's terrorist carnage in Mumbai, not to mention the Sept 11u00a0 blitz on New York's Twin Towers, and the guning down of Israeli athletes by Palestinian gunmen in the 1972 Munich Olympics Games Village.
The latest declaration of war by terrorists on world sport, heretofore considered sacrosanct and above politics by idealists, has plunged the sporting world in gloom and created a crisis that seems to have no end in sight in the foreseeable future.
It has exposed sanctimonious professions by the likes of former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan who, while repeatedly pleading for resumption of cricket tours of that country, have been living in a fool's paradise in maintaining that cricketers are too revered and beloved in the Indian sub-continent to ever be victims of any terrorist attack.
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Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis (left), Tharanga Paranavitana (centre) and assistant coach Paul Farbrace aboard an ambulance early today morning shortly after flying home from Pakistan. pic/AFP |
Former Australian Test cricketer Geoff Lawson, sacked as Pakistan cricket coach, yesterday conceded in Johannesburg in South Africa that the Lahore attack, in which five security personnel died and six Sri Lankan cricketers were injured (Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis providentially escaped unhurt, as did some foreign coaching staff) that "everything has (now) changed".
Lawson, a former pace bowler who had consistently maintained that visiting players would never be in danger in Pakistan, said the attack was a "massive blow".
"The prospects were not great for Pakistan cricket before this, they're absolutely horrendous now," he said.
Already ostracised by India after the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year, Pakistan now has virtually no chance of hosting the proposed 2011 World Cup along with India, Sri Lankla and Bangladesh.
The Indian team, playing the first one-day international at Napier yesterday against New Zealand (which they won by 53 runs), wore black armbands when they took the field after the innings break.
Even as Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland yesterday insisted that Australia's five-match one-day series against Pakistan, scheduled for April 24-May 7 at the neutral venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi following Australia's refusal to play in Pakistan, will proceed as planned, the future of the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, this year's IPL, scheduled for April-May and the 2011 Cricket World Cup are now in doubt.
Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser yesterday called on officials to cancel the 2010 Commonwealth Games following yesterday's terrorist attack, saying she fears "another Munich". Eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer were killed in the Olympics bloodbath.
Fraser said Commonwealth Games organisers should have begun looking at taking the event away from New Delhi after the Mumbai terror attacks. Meanwhile, Victorian premier John Brumby said Melbourne was ready to host the Games, if called upon.
Swimming Australia's head coach Alan Thompson said he was shocked by the Lahore attack.
"This is every sportsman's worst fear, that terrorism will enter our domain," he said.
