By Mohammad Sohaib
Islamabad — What if a Sri Lankan player had died that day? What if Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene or any one of them had gotten seriously injured? What if that rocket launcher had not missed its actual target?
Exactly six years ago today, the Sri Lankan Cricket team was attacked in Lahore.
Liberty Chowk, the heart of Lahore, became a battlefield when the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team was blocked by a white Suzuki. Eight people, including six policemen and two civilians, lost their lives while five Sri Lankan players were injured in the brutal attack.
Thilan Samarawera, Paranavithana and umpire Ahsan Raza suffered significant injuries. They are all living a healthy life today.
This happened to a team that came to Pakistan even after Australia and New Zealand refused to come to Pakistan. A team which felt at home in the 1996 World Cup final, in Lahore, against Australia.
Before the tour, they were promised Presidential-level security. But even members of Pakistan’s National Assembly enjoy heavier protocols than what the Sri Lankan team received. Two police mobiles with motorbikes around. Unidentified militants fired rocket launchers, grenades and modern weapons at this peaceful, almost unprotected Sri Lankan team.
“I am lying next to Thilan [Samaraweera],” Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s star wicketkeeper-batsman recalled the day of the attack in the 2011 annual Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s Cricket Ground, according to The Telegraph. “He groans in pain as a bullet hits him in the back of his thigh. As I turn my head to look at him, I feel something whizz past my ear and a bullet thuds into the side of the seat, the exact spot where my head had been a few seconds earlier.”
Most of us know what followed: Pakistan was banned from hosting any cricketing event in the country. We were not allowed to host the 2011 World Cup.
Apparently, the Pakistan Cricket Board has done a lot to convince other teams to visit Pakistan, but in practice such an occasion seems an unrealistic dream.
A lot has changed in Pakistan since the Sri Lankan team attack.
The Kenyan team visited Pakistan in December. But a fixture between Kenya and Pakistan A was postponed when the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar happened on December 16. Dr. Usman, who was believed to be the architect of the attack on the Sri Lankan team, was hanged to death on December 19.
Pakistan is still facing security challenges within the country. Our Armed Forces are busy in an operation against the militants. On the cricketing front, however, there is a need to make sure that the cricketing venues are conditioned. It is foolish to invite teams over when you don’t have many venues of international standards.
The domestic cricket structure is in dire need of an uplift. Venues of international standards should be built in different parts of the country so that we can build a nursery where young cricketing talent is polished.
It is difficult to say if we will see any revolutionary steps to transform the domestic cricket structure in Pakistan soon. But whenever you are around the Liberty market in Lahore, find some time to remember those eight innocents who sacrificed their lives for the country. And do remember Meher Mohammad Khalil, the bus driver who kept on driving the bus that day and took the Sri Lankan team to safety.
PAKISTAN INK 