Guns & Roses

Following traditions is important and so is the need to keep the important traditions alive. The Chinese have maintained their tradition of using fireworks to welcome a New Year. People in India and in many other countries use gunfires to express their delight during weddings and other big celebrations & gatherings. Similar traditions with roses and other flowers are practiced around the world for expressing love, welcoming a guest or for saying Good Bye (& come again !) to friends, family members or visitors. Anyways, with development of human civilization we all have learned to follow similar non-verbal gestures as a part of our daily life. Some traditions stay on, some fade away and others get botched-up due to frequent abuse and become pain-in-the-neck for a society.

Terrorists have a totally different DNA than what normal people have. Their tradition is to use their gun-power to take away the joy, peace and celebrations from others lives and that's what happened again- it was the Sri Lankan cricket team which was at the receiving end this time. The bouquet of roses was replaced by a bunch of grenades and the garland of flowers was conveniently substituted by volley of bullets - a unique way to welcome and farewell (to never come again ?) simultaneously. As a guest team, the SriLankan deserved good hospitality along with a top-notch security shield. The former expectation was well taken care of by the terrorists and it's apparent that the latter necessity was virtually non-existent- courtesy the local cricket board. On one hand we might be feeling relieved that there was no serious injuries in the Sri Lankans squad but on the other hand I think we feel sorry for those security personnel who lost their lives while providing protection to the visitors. Although a few lives were lost but the spirit of Cricket got completely decimated for sure. Anyways, the attackers I guess were a bit successful in achieving what they wanted- reestablish terror in local society, international media attention, screw up relationships of the host nation with other cricket playing countries and a bleak future of international sports in their region. The host nation now have a Herculean task of rebuilding their dented reputation since they might get isolated by all other countries pretty soon. I'll be surprised if there will be any international cricket match in that region in the near future- unless some terrorist outfits get high on drugs and decide to field their own cricket team against the local goons.

This episode of attack on sportsmen has now opened a new chapter in the history of Cricket- let’s hope this chapter remains as small as possible. Also, it now forces us to worry more about the local security rather than the weather or quality of pitches. This was the first time this kind of act happened in cricket- but this may not be the last one. ICC must act (along with other Cricket Boards) to take this event very seriously and take necessary steps to help prevent such a shameful mishap in future. Using neutral locations for international matches can be one solution ... may be Sharjah or Dubai 'll see some renewed interest as an alternate destination.

Cricket was once known as a gentleman's game still boasts some of the good old traditions. There are many batsmen who still walk towards the pavilion if they think they were out- without even looking at umpire(s). Many honest bowlers still don't appeal if they the playing batsmen were safe. Anyways, the long tradition of playing a fair game is slowly catching up and the other important tradition of keeping Cricket a family oriented Fun & Entertainment (and yet competitive) activity should be promoted worldwide.

Making "high & reliable security" as a #1 priority now and enforcing it as a mandatory prerequisite (before even thinking about organizing a match) will go a long way to keep the treasured traditions of cricket alive.