Sri Lankan Cricket and a Lahore Bus Driver

It’s indeed a miracle that six Sri Lankan cricketers attacked this morning in Lahore escaped with injuries. If you listen to the account of the bus driver, the braveheart savior of this mercurial group of cricketers, you shudder to think of what would have been. A grenade thrown at the bus landed under the bus, and it exploded immediately after the bus driver had driven over it. The man drove the players to safety even as bullets had deflated the tyres. For all cricket lovers, this man is indeed a hero.

Everything else pales into insignificance. You want to celebrate the blistering knocks of Sehwag and Raina, compliment the Aussies on fighting and winning the first test match in South Africa, and applaud Cook for finally getting a hundred after promising several hundreds of late and not delivering. But somehow, the only thing that comes to your mind is the fact that the Lankan team was lucky to escape.

This incident further aggravates the isolation of Pakistan Cricket, and poses further questions on the sub-continent. The Indian Home Minister has very sensibly called for the postponement of IPL, as it coincides with the elections to the Indian Parliament being held in April & May. The task of ensuring security for IPL teams in an environment of greater tension may be too much for Indian security agencies since the elections are indeed a mammoth exercise in themselves.

It’s a bad time to be a Pakistani cricketer, and a bad time to be a Pakistani cricket fan.  We have already heard reactions like the one from Dominic Cork – I don’t want to come here till I am living. I don’t think anyone would want to come here for the next 10 or 20 years. If I were in Cork’s place, I might have also reacted similarly. However, once the emotions stabilize, world cricketing bodies must get together and find a way to keep Pakistani Cricket and its fans in the game.

South Africa was isolated because of its politics and the world missed out on watching incredible talents like Barry Richards, the Pollocks, Clive Rice and several others in their full flow. Do we want a repeat of that? Do we want a split of the cricketing world between Sub-continent and others? Do we want Younis Khan and his teammates to sit at home and watch while their friends across the world from other cricketing nations go about their business? What happens to the 2011 world cup? There are many questions that this gruesome incident has thrown up and the ICC needs to bring everyone together to take positive decisions for world cricket. Without putting the lives of cricketers and fans at risk, of course.

In the end, let’s salute the bus driver once again.