Geoff Lawson, former ordinary coach of a bunch of teams, says England pulling themselves out of India smells of hypocrisy.
That isn’t true, it smells of poo stained undergarments.
But i digress, Lawson believes it is a double standard that the Ashes went on in 2005 after the bombs on the trains, and they left this time.
I have used a similar argument before, only for Australia, and i was right.
Australia wouldn’t tour Pakistan, even though they were not the targets.
England left India because people with guns were cutting down Whities.
See the Difference Geoff, its tiny, but its there.
Lawson is not way off the mark here, Terrorism happens everywhere, and as far as i know the only terrorist action ever aimed at cricket directly was at the MCG, and i think it was for a footy game anyway.
But this was different than normal terrorist actions.
Bombs are indiscriminate, they are the lazy way, ot the populist way of getting rid of people.
This was people going from hotel to hotel with guns looking for whities, Poms & Yanks especially, to kill.
The English cricket team stay in hotels.
All cricket teams stay in hotels in India.
Not all teams go in the tube.
The chances of a player being caught in the tube, mid tour, during a terrorist attack, is less than Natalie Portman doing a strip tease act with a cricket bat as a prop for my 30th birthday.
Or at least the same.
So that is the difference, that is why England went home instead of playing 2 useless one dayers.
That is why Harmy doesn’t want to tour.
The players are scared, because their nationality, at a hotel they stayed at was targeted.
Terrorism scares them, but indiscriminate bombs in public areas they can live with, they might not like them, but they can live with them, because they are not aimed at them.
This was aimed at them, and for someone like harmy, who would have never left the north of england without cricket, that is scary.
And with all that in mind England are planning on coming back,
“The ECB has informed the Indian board it has agreed to tour India and play two tests, the first at Chennai from December 11-15 and the second at Mohali from December 19-23. The tour will be officially cleared after discussions between the ECB’s security consultant and officials in India, N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, said.”
Maybe without Harmy, but he doesn’t like travelling at the best of times.
cricketwithballs
Good point.
Spot on UncleJ. None of the other blasts fazed me, but this one has me peeing in my pants. Terrorists going on a shooting spree with AK47s in the middle of the city. scary.
spot on Jrod. however, whenever the teams have stayed in any hotel in india, the security has been tight. that’s why i think the terrorists got lucky this time when they attacked at a time when the security was lax.if england team had elected to stay in the region, they might well have realised that the game could heal the wounds quickly. all the ranji trophy matches are being played on the same basis and i think the security issue could be made to look be all and end all.what the fans now should do is to come in heavy numbers and support the teams if/when thsy do play the tests
I get your point, but what from what I’ve heard, the reports that white people were targeted was way over the top. I think one news channel started it, and most caught on. But yeah, I get what you’re saying.
Jrod. You are not wrong. Mark Butcher was on Sky the other day, when he toured India shortly after 9/11, each of the players had heavily armed guards outside their hotel room doors and patrolling the corridors. Security shouldn’t be a problem, especially as the BCCI knows that any remote danger to any player whatsoever could result in teams not touring in the future, and the dire consequences that would have to Indian cricket and India’s reputation. I personally think that we should tour. London’s commuters were back on the tube the day after the July 7th bombings, and our cricketers have the opportunity to stick two fingers up to the terrorists again in India.
(Like everyone it seems) I agree with you.One thing I’ve noticed though is that no one is mentioning the England fans. If it was true that the terrorists were targeting westerners (although Aashrey could be right that this may have been exaggerated) then the security services can probably guarantee the safety of the England players, but England tour followers would not have that luxury.I personally think the England should return, just think it’s strange that none of the journalists are mentioning the (potentially greater) danger to camp followers.
Cheers y’all. Aashrey, at least one of the terrorists said it, which is enough for people like harmy.
the england team is so full of themselves that they now think they are targets! what a joke…geoff is quite right. terrorism is part and parcel in cricket nations. either cricketers get on with the program or fuck off.as for terrorists targeting “whities”, plenty more of them would have been found at the Marriotts and Hiltons and not at the Taj or Oberoi. also i am sure a lot of “whities” are to be found in city hospitals, local train stations and markets which were also targeted.
Agreed. I mean imagine if India toured Aus and there was some terrorist attack going on at Melbourne with them saying we are looking for Indians and we want to kill em.Would Indians not be scared then ?Ps- So you gonna hit the big 3 0 soon ?