Match referee questions glitches in security on Terror Tuesday
Match referee questions glitches in security on Terror Tuesday
Ever since his playing days as specialist batsman for England, Chris Broad, currently an ICC match referee, has been a combustible commodity.
Having escaped providentially from the jaws of death in last Tuesday's Lahore bloodbath, Broad is justifiably ballistic over the execrable security arrangements for players and match officials, which resulted in the deaths of eight civilians and injuries to six Sri Lankan players.
Speaking to the media on arrival in London yesterday, Broad put a new spin to the multitude of whodunit conspiracy theories surrounding the carnage.
"On the first two days both buses left (from the team hotel) at the same time with escorts," he disclosed.
"On this particular day the Pakistan bus left five minutes after the Sri Lankan bus.
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"Why? Did someone know something and they held back the Pakistan bus back?" he asked angrily, adding: "We were promised that we would get presidential-style security. In that hour our security vanished."
Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan, the only Tamil-speaking player in the team, was highly critical of the security provided to his team, labeling it the "worst security arrangement" he had seen.
"The security was not good enough and we were sitting ducks because of that," he said.
Professionals?
"The security people we had didn't even seem to fight back. Were they professionals with enough training?
They didn't seem to know what to do. I was surprised the terrorists were able to just reload the magazines and keep firing, and they never got caught. It was shameful.
"If this had happened in Colombo they would not have got away because our units have been fighting for 20 years and they are very experienced and know what to do".
Muralitharan, who will turn 37 next month, said: "When cricket teams travel in Sri Lanka, there are specially trained guards on the bus.
"These guys can tell us what to do but (in Lahore) there was nobody to advise us or shoot back and scare them," he said.
"Everybody cricket-playing nation will have to take security much more seriously now."
Vowing to keep playing international cricket after the attack, Muralitharan said philosophically at his hometown Kandy, where he is relaxing with his wife and three-year old son: "If we all stop playing, then we've been defeated."
He said he had not altered his plans to keep playing until the 2011 Cricket World Cup in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Simon Taufel, four-time ICC "umpire of the year", was furious.
Condemning the security arrangements after he and his fellow umpires were left for dead in the atrocity, Taufel said he could not believe how he had survived after being caught "in the middle of a war".
"I still can't believe I am here," he said upon arrival yesterday at Sydney airport, where he was received by his wife, Helen, and sons Harry and Jack.
"I'm angry we were isolated. I'm angry we didn't get the same amount of security the players got and I'm angry that in our hour of need, we were left on our own."
Taufel said that Pakistan and the umpires' employers, the ICC, had promised nine out of 10 security "and probably delivered two (out of 10).
"You tell me why no one was caught. You tell me why supposedly 25 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own".
Steve Davis, the second field umpire concurred with his colleague.
"We were left with no one around," Davis said upon arrival at Melbourne airport.
"The Sri Lankan bus drove off and all strength to them. But our driver had been shot dead and we were just stuck in the roundabout and were being pelted with bullets and whatever else they were throwing at us and there was no other security around.
"Even when their bus got back to the stadium, no one came to get us. I couldn't understand it. There are a lot of questions to be answered," Davis said.
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