Cricket news at this time is full of people associated with international cricket both past and present, bemoaning the fact of Pakistan’s isolation in world cricket following the Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team. Those people who earlier scoffed at the Australian and Indian cricket teams for refusing to tour Pakistan for reasons of security threats are now silenced forever. Those that said ‘if cricket in Pak is safe for Sri Lanka it is safe for other teams as well’ now do not have a leg to stand on. Those that said ‘No it is not safe to tour Pak’ now have their stand vindicated and can perhaps be forgiven for saying ‘I told you so’!

The goodwill gesture of the Sri Lankans in touring strife torn Pakistan turned out to be a rather misguided one. When one looks at the enormity of the incident and the fact of how the injuries sustained by the cricket players could as easily have been fatalities among the players as well as the officials or even a hostage situation, you realize that this was an incident that could without doubt have been far, far worse!

In this situation you really cannot help but agree when MS Dhoni says that touring Pak in the foreseeable futures seems impossible. When former captain Sourav Ganguly is reported in the cricket news as saying Pak is not a safe venue for cricket and that the incident of Lahore was ‘frightening’ you cannot disagree.

As the Indian Premier League hovers on the horizon, all of this has to be preying on the minds of the powers that be in Indian cricket. Indians both from the cricketing fraternity as well as the political fraternity are anxious to make it clear that there is nothing of the security threat that exists in Pakistan here in India for cricket and cricket players.

Even the union home minister P Chidambaram has been at pains to reassure everyone that cricket is ‘Completely Safe’ in India.  One can take reassurance from the fact that the security measures that have now been put into place after the Mumbai blasts are in fact of an impressive level, that the security in place for the IPL is also no less formidable. This is in direct contrast to the security cover that was provided for the Sri Lankan team and officials in Lahore, with the conspiracy and insider job theories now doing the rounds.

Apart from all else, Indian cricket simply cannot afford a security slip up of the kind in Lahore; this itself is a reassuring fact!

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

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