Almost thirteen years go, on 17th March 1996, this very ground played host to Sri Lanka's finest sporting moment - when Arjuna Ranatunga proudly lifted the Wills World Cup trophy given to him by the late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Little did they know that thirteen years later, outside that very Gaddafi Stadium would they be subject to the same fate as her, with twelve to fourteen terrorists nakedly brandishing their Kalashnikovs, hurling rocket launchers and hand grenades at the team bus on its way from the hotel to the ground. This was probably the day cricket was shamed, brought to its knees by the wrath of terrorists who with an absolute disregard for anything distinctly human, fired at the visiting Sri Lankans. At first, it deserves a condemnation in the harshest, rather strongest possible language and one hopes that the perpetrators of this dastardly act are brought to justice. Sounds like a formal Government statement, but I just can't help it.
It was about the wee hours of the morning when a friend called from India, and a former Sri Lankan player kind enough to keep in touch with me, sent me a text about the attack. It literally woke me up and I couldn't but feel shocked, for I have made friends and acquaintances within the Sri Lankan team over the years. Some of my closest cricketing contacts are within the 16-member squad and to see them in such a state was disgusting, unfortunate and indigestible. But, therein lay a crude reminder of Pakistan's free-fall into chaos, its deterioration into a failed state and indeed one which could potentially affect the larger sub-continent. If Mumbai's seige on 26/11 was not reminder enough to Zardari & Co, here it is. And as the day prolonged and my interactions with people connected with Sri Lanka cricket got going, I realized that this was more than an symbolic attack on cricketers, who among many others were there to show their solidarity with the people of Pakistan amidst tour boycotts and cancellations.
Why would a Sri Lankan team be attacked at the first place, I began to ask myself as the Pakistani media began its share of India-bashing and got into its usual, "non-state actors are behind it" and "one cannot rule out an international hand" type denial mode, as it did post-26/11. Was there a touch of symbolism behind attacking a team which hails from a country that has been crippled by terror itself ? Or, was it a blatant act of terror by the group (you know who I'm referring to) seeking a larger international visibility after signing a peace deal with the Pakistan government in the Swat valley not so long ago ? Or, going by recent events of instability, I ask, if the political vacuum in Punjab province, created an ideal environment for an attack of such brazen nature ? Having read and followed the post-9/11 situation in Pakistan through various books, talks and documentaries, I can't rule such possibilities out. But, what this attack did was it shamed cricket more than anything ever before and indeed splashed a bigger black mark over Pakistan and its future.
While India pulled out from what would have been a Pakistan vs India series due to diplomatic pressure from New Delhi, Sri Lanka tried to play the good Samaritan, only to be backstabbed by the ones it tried to help. When I spoke to Arjuna Ranatunga yesterday afternoon, who ironically took the first step by proposing to help out Pakistan, all he told me was, "Well, we were promised and assured of full security by the Pakistani authorities." In hindsight, both he and Mr. Lokuge would admit that this tour was hastily arranged, without a proper security delegation from Sri Lanka Cricket or the Government visiting the country to examine the arrangements there. Every country visiting or planning to visit Pakistan in the recent past has done that, and so as a matter of protocol, Sri Lanka should have followed suit. Instead, they fell for the sugar-coated promises made by the PCB and decided to go without a recce or a preparation and sadly, their innocent cricketers fell victims. Sad, but true. And going by India's warning to Sri Lanka in December against touring Pakistan (something seen as a proof of RAW involvement by some of my Sri Lankan friends and some security experts in Pakistan), they should have taken it seriously and at least, sent people across to see if things were fine enough to play cricket. They didn't and we all know what happened.
The events of Tuesday has not only ensured Pakistan's further isolation by the cricketing community, but has also put the World Cup under considerable doubt, as much of the post-mortem revealed. Yes, it is time for Pakistan to wake up to realities within its own sovereign territory and indeed as every terror attack does, gives them an opportunity to set things right. Even with regular regime changes in that country (be it uniformed, civilian or whatever they call "democracy"), the mindset has remained the same. Pakistanis, who are as passionate about the game as any of the Indians I know, do not deserve this at all. Yet, with so much at stake, both the PCB and the Government fumbled and failed, resulting in an unprecedented first-time-ever attack on cricketers.
As the day draws to a close, those images of the terrorists on a free-run outside the Gaddafi Stadium just refuses to fade away, for it stripped cricket off everything it stood for - a binding force that kept the region together, a sport that brought people together, as the romantics would add. It was a day, the sport would have never lived to see and witness with its very players being in the midst of it. Cricket was indeed raped on 3rd March 2009.
