Sport in Times of Terror

As I was getting ready to leave for work on a bright and sunny Tuesday morning, a feisty Virender Sehwag was setting the tone for a big Indian score in the first ODI against NZ at Napier. I am fortunate enough to have a network of friends who keep providing real-time scoring updates which ensure that you don’t miss a single game irrespective of your level of proximity to the idiot box.
By the time I reached office, my inbox had four messages and to my horror, the topic of discussion had conveniently shifted from Napier to Lahore. The Lankan team bus on its way to the Gaddafi stadium was attacked by 12 armed terrorists near the plush Liberty Market area of Lahore. Terror had once again struck and the PCB’s attempt to revive International Cricket on Pakistani soil had met with a lethal blow.
Terror hasn’t been unknown to Sport but what was striking about this attack was that for the first time, cricketers were directly targeted, unless the previous instances where cricket has been on the fringes. It is only the second time after the infamous Munich saga of 1972 that sportsmen have been the target of a terror strike and unfortunately, it holds the potential to finish off cricket in Pakistan for a long time to come.
It all started with the ’96 World Cup, when the Aussies and the West Indians refused to play their games in Sri Lanka citing security reasons with the ongoing civil war, and in the process gifted SL 4 precious points. Then came the NZ tour of Pak in 2002, where Stephen Fleming’s young side was left shell-shocked when a bomb blast meters away from the Pearl Continental forced them to take the next available flight back home. Australia and West Indies who were slated to tour Pakistan next, played out the games in a neutral venue.
In more recent times, South Africa, taking a very defensive stance, backed out from their Sri Lanka tour halfway through in 2006. Then of course, we had our own version of the story, with the Englishmen returning home midway through the ODI series after the Mumbai terror strike late in ’08, thankfully to return back and play out the test series. The Indian govt. rightly, denied permission for the team to go ahead with the proposed Pakistan tour which was when Sri Lanka was invited and the ill-fated tour happened.
Hillary Clinton, along with the many others who commented on the attack, made a very pertinent comment when she said that "much of the planning" for terror strikes around the world was taking place in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Terror definitely has a nucleus and though it emanates from that nucleus, it ends up affecting a very larger circumference.
Its just the Asian sub-continent that we are talking about today, and thankfully events like the EPL, a darling of the European masses, has till now managed to stay unscathed. It’s just a matter of time though, and if the terror nucleus isn’t smashed, you don’t know who would be the next target.
Skipper Younis Khan, addressing the media a day after the strike, rightly said that with the end of Cricket in Pakistan, he fears that the youth might be encouraged to indulge in immoral activities. With only domestic cricket to look forward to, Pakistan’s future as a strong test side looks bleak.
Shifting focus homewards, the first challenge for the game would be to go ahead and stage the IPL as planned. With Chidambaram at the helm, security concerns should be well handled. The onus lies upon Lalit Modi and his team though, to prove that the IPL, in addition to being recession-proof, is also terror-proof!