Frightened, frightened, frit
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Everyone seems to be agreed. Following the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, it will be a long, long time before Pakistan hosts another Test match.
Why? Surely this is handing the terrorists the victory they want? What does it say about our ability to defend our sporting culture (as well as supporting a Western-friendly government) if we capitulate without a fight?
More than any other sport, cricket is a cultural bridge that links English-speaking countries like Britain and Australia to the sub-Continent. The most English of games, cricket has been adopted - some would say canonised - by millions of people in India and Pakistan.
Of course, it's easy for me to sit here, in my Cambridge office, pontificating on whether international cricketers should travel to Pakistan (or India, for that matter). But I am old enough to remember when Wales and Scotland both refused to play Five Nations rugby matches in Ireland following IRA threats in 1972, and the enormous pride I felt when England ran out the following year, defying similar threats, to play Ireland in Dublin.
Clearly, if Test match cricket is to be played in Pakistan, security has to be improved dramatically. (The Pakistan authorities may have to swallow their pride and allow security forces from other Test playing countries to operate alongside their own.)
Equally, it will take courage on the part of international cricketers who, understandably, will think very hard before putting themselves at risk. But sooner rather than later Test match cricket MUST return to Pakistan. Terrorists cannot be allowed to win by default.
And when Test matches do return to Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar or Rawalpindi, I pray that the first series will be against an England side that receives a standing ovation similar to that which greeted our rugby players in Dublin in 1973.
Reader Comments (1)
We've come a long way from the type of terrorism of 1973.
In my opinion any criket team that would set foot in Pakistan would be crazy as that country is a terrifying tinderbox of taliban islamists intent on taking it over.
The journalist Daniel Pearl would probably agree, that is if he still had his head!