New Delhi: Just a week or so ago, Pakistan cricket was relishing this moment. It was new captain, Younis Khan making a triple hundred. It was their first test match in over a year and may be Pakistan was emerging from the shadows of being a cricketing outcast.
But, in a few monstrous moments on Tuesday morning, all that disappeared. The consequences of the Lahore attack on Sri Lankan cricket team potentially devastated the game in Pakistan.
“Internationally I think this news will hurt all the cricket lovers because this is one game which is internationally loved,” says former Pakistan cricketer, Adbul Qadir.
Even before this incident, international teams were unwilling to tour Pakistan.
The Champions trophy, already postponed last year had been relocated out of the country. Australia was only willing to play a bilateral series in the safe confines of Abu Dhabi.
“Even earlier a sub-continent team refused to play in Pakistan and now this incident happened with another sub-continent team. So now I really doubt that any outside team will be willing or agree to play in Pakistan.,” says former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Now the big question surrounds the World Cup which is to just two years away now. Pakistan is a co-host along with India, Bangaldesh and Sri Lanka but will any cricketer be willing to set foot in Pakistan now.
“On the face of this attack I don't think so that any country would like to go and play in Pakistan. So, ICC will have to reconsider their decision whether to play matches in Pakistan or not,” says BCCI chief Shashank Mohan.
“The biggest challenge ahead is the 2011 World Cup which we are suppose to organise with Pakistan. This terror attack will have a bad impact on the coming World Cup because the participating countries will be a bit unwilling to play in Pakistan,” adds former BCCI president Sharad Pawar.
For the ICC the Pakistan headache just got even more painful after this attack. It would be impossible for the world body to argue now with any teams who refuse to tour the country.
"I believe the situation that is currently in Pakistan it is such that there would be a great reluctance in cricketers to return there,” says ICC president David Moragan.
Imran khan had once famously said that no terrorist group would ever attack sportsmen. Those words now ring hollow, although some voices in Pakistan cricket continue to argue that the game can survive this crisis.
“It is not only in Pakistan, all over the world the security problem is going on. I still remember what happened in India. Terrorism is going on all over the world,” argues former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad.
There was a time when Pakistan cricket was acknowledged for the resplendent talents they produced. Now, tragically, cricket's destiny in Pakistan appears tied to terror.
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