Terrorists open fire on Sri Lankan cricket team
The breaking news from Lahore this morning is that terrorists have attacked the Sri Lankan team bus with AK47s, rockets and grenades.
Five of the players were injured (Thilan Samaraweera, Ajantha Mendis, Tharanga Paranavitana, Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Thushara), whilst five policemen were killed in the attacks whilst the bus was on its way to the Gadaffi Stadium for the third day of the second Test against Pakistan.
The attacks put the rest of the tour in jeopardy, and is a potential risk to the future of Pakistani cricket. Future tours to the troubled country could now be at risk as International teams consider their players’ safety.
Pakistan are also due to co-host the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and the ICC will surely be reviewing this situation as well – Javed Miandad, a former national team captain and coach, said: “It is going to be very difficult for us to now convince teams that they can play the World Cup in Pakistan safely.”
We’ll keep you posted as the drama unfolds, but let us know if you find any more information.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:20 am
This is extraordinary and i couldn’t believe what i was reading this morning. The focus has been on the players’ injuries, which are apparently quite minor but FIVE policemen were killed. My first reaction was how can they let this happen, but the i thought, how could you possibly have stopped the terrorists?
After the bombings in Mumbai as well, cricket teams really aren’t going to want to travel to India and Pakistan.