I had expressed helplessness over the lack of accountability over the kind of pitches that get prepared in this day and age, which in turn are on the verge of ensuring that the final few nails in the coffin of test cricket are been hammered. Yet, what happened a couple of days back in Pakistan seems to have jolted us all back to reality about the priorities in life. Again. A flat pitch is no evil when compared with remaining flat in the bus which has been attacked by a troupe of terrorists; cricket is clearly the last thing one can think of in such a scenario.
More than fifteen months after the last test match was played on Pakistani soil, the Samaritan neighbours in Sri Lanka had had almost zilch hesitation in attempting to show the world that it was not such a bad place after all. In fact, in the past, many of the Pakistani greats like Imran Khan had been very vocal about cricketers being secure and had openly averred that no harm could ever befall on the cricket teams. They were said to be safe as houses in a country that was reeling under consistent threats from terrorist organisations from across some of their borders. Unfortunately, they were proved as far from the truth as the perpetrators would currently be from the clutches of the law.
The biggest surprise though was that of the former English bowler, Dominic Cork, not only touring the country as a commentator, but also advocating that Pakistan is a perfect place to tour, to his fellow English cricketers! Clearly, his countryman, Ian Botham’s famous tirade, “Pakistan is a place to send your mother-in-law to, all expenses paid” had been lost on Cork. It has obviously not taken too long for him to reverse the all-so-lavish praise to, ‘I-shall-never-go-there-again’ refrain, and with some good reason.
And what does the future hold for the sport? Well, for starters, it is inconceivable for any team to even think of touring the country again until the situation improves as drastically as a fire in a forest. But the more grave issue is with the cricket getting hit in the region around the beleaguered country; the Indian sub-continent. The 2009 season of IPL is in a great danger of getting cancelled – it cannot get postponed because of the FTP calendar, and India goes to polls during the same time – this year; something that would ensure a loss of money worth millions for the BCCI. Further into the distance, the next World Cup was planned to be held in the sub-continent, but Pakistan clearly seems out of favour for now, and with India too coming under a terror scanner, it may not be such a distant possibility that the World Cup goes the Champions Trophy way.
Already one has heard reports of the Aussie cricketers been jittery, Jacob Oram openly questioning the rationale of going for the IPL and Kevin Pietersen indulging in his favourite pastime – sending down sms texts – and querying his team owner about the future of the tournament!
One doesn’t obviously see how this one would pan out, but for the sake of cricket at least – and I have no qualms in accepting that love for cricket is a shallow and selfish motive for me – one really hopes that this acts as a tipping point for the country and they move in the right direction to eradicate the terrorism from its roots. Else, it could very well be the eradication of cricket from all over the continent.