When the Sri Lankan cricket team and match officials were attacked in Lahore on 3rd March, there were bound to be far-reaching repercussions of this; that was to be expected. What was not expected however was the war of words and the series of allegations and counter allegations that ensued in the cricket news between the match officials and which took an ugly turn when conspiracies were hinted at and complaints were filed. Rarely if ever has international cricket been witness to hostile altercations such as this.

Now the Pakistan cricket coach Intikhab Alam has also required Broad to apologise to the nation for his ‘appalling’ allegations. While referring to the attacks on the Sri Lankan team as highly unfortunate, and gruesome, he said "But I must say that I was hurt by Chris Broad's appalling allegations against Pakistan as well as our cricket team after the incident. He (Broad) must apologise for those comments."

The match referee’s statement that the Pakistanis promised high level security and left them like sitting ducks when required has obviously hit a raw nerve as also the questions raised about the Pakistan cricket team leaving 5 minutes later than their Lankan counterparts.

"How can anybody say such a thing? I mean it's such a wild allegation. I think Mr. Broad is an experienced official and should know what he is talking about. He should know that all teams are given a timetable for commuting and we also had one and were following it on that day too," said Alam.

"The ICC should take this issue very seriously and should ask Mr. Broad to apologise to Pakistan for his comments that have hurt us deeply," said Alam, sentiments which seem to be echoed by the Director General of the PCM, Javed Miandad who is also highly offended by Broad.

Miandad even went a step further to say that he would urge the International Cricket Council (ICC) to impose a life ban on Broad.

What is however not clear in all this is why all the ire is being directed only at Broad when umpire Simon Taufel has gone on record to make similar statements as has Lankan spinner Muralitharan and Sri Lankan coach Trevor Bayliss.

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

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