Cricket grinds to a halt in India

It was sad and horrifying the senseless attack on the Indian commercial hub Mumbai by terrorists that has led to the England cricket team having to leave after playing five of their seven one-day internationals against India.

With the Englishmen flying out, it is likely that the Twenty20 Champions Leagues and other sport, especially cricket will take a back seat for quite sometime in India.

The two sub-continent countries where a lot of cricket is being played, India and Pakistan have seen a lot of terrorist activity in recent times which has led to visiting teams having to pull out or teams scheduled to visit having to skip.

England who have been thrashed in all five one-day internationals saved face owing to the circumstances otherwise a seven-nil whitewash was on the cards.

In addition to the Englishmen going home, the Twenty20 champions league is also on hold and the Board of Control for Cricket in India which is the World Bank of world cricket will lose a lot of money.

This terrorist attack in Mumbai is not something like a bomb going off. It was terrifying with so much of lives lost and the English cricketers were right in taking wing back home.

Life is more valuable than sport. And although it is not likely that the terrorists would go for sportsmen, there is the likelihood that they may be in the right spot but at the wrong time.

It is said that the English cricketers were at the Taj Mahal and were due to return later on. It was divine intervention that did not see the visitors at the hotel when the terrorists struck.

England were down to play two Test matches later on. But with this calamity it is not likely that they would come back. And they cannot be blamed for that.

The International Cricket Council will sure understand and not even think of punishing the Englishmen by fining them as they usually do.

 Munich massacre

The only time terrorists launched a heartless attack on sportsmen was in Munich, Germany during the Olympics Games in 1972. That attack to say the least was senseless and it earned the condemnation it rightly deserved.

I was there at the Holiday Olympic Hotel as a guest of the German Government doing a few articles on the Games for the now defunct 'Times of Ceylon', and the horror and grief that that attack received was terrible.

That incident that is still vivid in my memory went like this. It was conceived, planned and executed by a terrorist outfit known as Black September from Palestine.

After the Games it was revealed that the terrorists had worked at the site where the Israeli athletic contingent was staying and they had easy access to the innocent and harmless, Israeli sporting contingent.

In those days security was not that tight and reports had it that the terrorists wearing athletic outfits with kit bags strapped and carried on their shoulders had gained admission into the village. The kit bags contained guns and grenades.

The terrorists then made their way to the rooms of the athletes and tapped on them and when opened fired indiscriminately gunning down all of the sportsmen who faced them.At the end of the mayhem seven Israeli athletes lay dead, felled for no fault of theirs. Their only sin being that they were Israelis, not having anything to do for which they were killed.

The world cried at this atrocity and at the closing ceremony all eyes would have been moist worldwide, as it was in the packed stadium noticing the absence of the seven sportsmen who were felled when the Israeli contingent lined up.

That was also the Games where Mark Spitz dominated the swimming events by winning, if my memory serves me right seven gold medals until it was broken by Michael Phelps who pocketed eight gold medals in this year's Bejing Olympics. Anyway when cricket will again be played in India would be interesting to watch.

Lankans on a roll

The Sri Lankan cricketers are singing their way to victories over Zimbabwe in the one-day international series that came to an end in Zimland and saw a 5-0 thrashing of the hosts.

The Zimbabweans are just going through the motions, and although giving the Lankans a few scares, are just fronting up and don't seem to be making any impression.

By tumbling like pigeons, the Zimbabweans are not doing their chances of joining the big league again any good. With the team continuing to lose, it is apparent that all is not good with their game and the administration.

Realising that the opponents are no hopers, the Lankans were taking it easy and didn't seem to be playing at their best.

Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis with his cleverly disguised variety of deliveries seem to toying with the helpless Zim batsmen. The batsmen are just putting bat to ball, not knowing which everywhere it is going and are just falling easy prey to him.

While Mendis is mowing down all opposition, his real Test will come when he fronts up to Australia, England or South Africa. So far he has had a ball which is good for him and the country.

Not one of three mentioned teams would be playing Sri Lanka for quite sometime. Until that happens Mendis will keep knocking down batsmen with his mystifying spin.None of the frontline batsmen have been able to get among the runs because the home team has been dismissed for paltry scores.

A formidable total could have brought the best out of the batsmen. The small totals have not gone to bring the best out of Tharanga, Jayawardena and Sangakkara.