Television reports of breaking cricket news on the subject of the Lahore attacks of Tuesday have show CCTV footage of armed terrorists speeding away on a motorbike and crossing a Pakistani security van who did nothing to stop, accost or detain the terrorists in any way. The conclusion that the report drew from the footage was that there had to have been some nexus between the militants and the security forces that aided and abetted the attackers.

There was also the suggestion that the attackers were planning to take the match officials hostage and create a situation to use them as a bargaining tool for securing the release of the dreaded terrorist who is the prime accused in the Mumbai attacks.

It was perhaps the fact that not one of the attackers suffered fatalities and escaped unchallenged that raised obvious questions such as these from a furious Simon Taufel, umpire for the match:  “You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own?” he said emphatically, “We were left on our own in our time of need."

Match referee Chris Board who was traveling on the same vehicle as Taufel also expressed similar views as he said, "We were promised high-level security, and in our hour of need that security vanished."

He also wondered why the bus carrying the Pakistani players left 5 minutes later that day, when earlier their leaving was always coordinated. Broad expressed the view that he and his colleagues were left to be ‘sitting ducks’ for the gunmen, and he opined that no team will be willing to play in such potentially hostile territory for a long time.

Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is also of the view that the terrorists had inside information. "Somehow in this incident there were no police with guns on the bus. If someone was there with a gun we would have had a chance of defending ourselves. Normally all the buses go and we have four or five escorts. We left at 8.30am and Younis Khan [with the Pakistan team bus] at 8:35 a.m. We divided into two - maybe they knew the information for the right time."

Broad who was hailed as a hero for protecting his colleague from the attackers, has indicated a bleak future for Pak cricket when he said, “The game has to go on but I don’t know what the future holds for Pakistan cricket. I feel sorry for the cricketers and for the cricket-mad public of Pakistan. They have a lot of talent within their country and you would like to see them play cricket — but I don’t know if it will be possible.”

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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