When the next cricket team travels to Pakistan, I hope to be there.

I might have to wait a while, but hopefully someone cashes me up and sends me there.

I thought teams should tour there, but I also thought the best protection available would be given to them. That was not the case, 40 year old rifles and a ute or two of police is not presidential security anywhere other than Fiji.

Right at the moment international cricket should not be played in Pakistan, although I do not believe that has been the case for the entirety of the last decade.

My issues with Australians, mostly, not touring Pakistan have been with hypocrisy, the fact it has been eleven years since they have been there, and the general bullshit pretences before ‘deciding’ to pull out not long before the tour. 

Hypocrisy

Shane Watson was playing for Rajasthan when the city was attacked, just up from the Royals hotel, and he was not asked to come home.

Australia A toured Pakistan in September 2007.

That they were willing to play in war torn countries, countries with dictators, countries with active terrorism, but not Pakistan.

11 years

In that time every team in the world has been to Pakistan.

Some countries more than once.

Australia has not, and realistically, has not even been close to playing there.

Pretence

The biggest problem I have with Australia, isn’t with the players, I understand fear, but the administracrats.

The way they pretend there is a chance they are going, the setting up the tour, delaying the decision, and all that shit, when we all know they aren’t going.

Australia weren’t ever going, don’t fuck with us, don’t give us shit, just cancel the tour.

Cricket is a beautiful game, but I would prefer to see the blood kept on the pitch than off it, so for the time being Pakistan is off limits, but once a team tours them again, I will happily go along to report, finances permitted.

Probably would have been best if Ijaz had just shut the fuck up.

Attacking people who were attacked while you were sitting at a desk is hardly going to look good.

You can say you disagree with them, you can say that perhaps they were caught up in the moment, but saying that “”All his [Broad's] statements are false. He has now made obnoxious comments.” and “”He says there was no policemen there [but] I think there could be no bigger lie than this because six policemen died and ten are injured.” seems a bit much.

Ijaz, we get that you see things differently, but you look like a bit of a cock saying this, especially as Taufel and Davis have backed Broad up, and the 4th umpire has a bullet hole in his back.

When he had finished Broad bashing he moved on to the conspiracy theory that said the Pakistan team was delayed on purpose so they would not be attacked.

He had this to say on the matter, “It is wrong to suggest that. The same security procedure was followed”, and “The Pakistan team used to leave at the same time as the Sri Lankan team and other officials, but somehow or the other on that day they got a bit late.”

If a reporter states it was an inside job or a conspiracy, he says it was wrong to suggest.

If 3 people from inside the attacks, the attackees if you will, say that the security was lax, he says its all comments are false and no bigger lie.

Interesting that Broad gets him angrier than the statements that some of his people were in the know, and or worse.

The PCB are going to lodge a formal complaint against Chris Broad for the comments.

Broad is thinking of making a formal complaint against the PCB for almost getting his ass shot off.

For some Indian cricket fans there could be no harder side to choose between in an argument than between Chris Broad and the Pakistanis.

Pissed off that someone is dead protecting a sport I play.

That people from a lunatic fringe have wounded my sport.

Pissed off that the people of Pakistan have to live like this.

Angry at cunts that gloat in the face of tragedy.

Filty at the mother fucking assholes that forget they live in glasshouses.

The I told you so’ers lining to tell everyone that they are right and everyone else is a dickhead can fuck right off.

Fuck the people who try and score points in this madness.

The cunts who put 40 year old rifles in the police officers hands.

Fuck the hate.

Fuck me for being right.

Fuck me for being wrong.

Everyone who thought of the affect this had on cricket before they thought of the lives lost should go get fucked.

Anyone who thought of the poor Lankan cricketers before the dead Pakistani police officers should be fucken ashamed of themselves.

Fuck religion, and all the hate it brings out in people, no one has killed in the name of cricket, and it is our game, our life, our hope, our dreams, our entertainment, our spirituality, our religion.

Fuck the terrorists.

Fuck them hard, fuck them for taking something pure and good, and turning it to shit. Fuck them for thinking this will help them. Fuck them for thinking they are right and justified. Fuck them for doing this and still not making a difference. Fuck them for killing. Fuck them for maiming. Fuck them for ruining Pakistan. Fuck them hard.

Jrod, can go and get fucked too.

You get emotionally involved when something affects you, you little weasel cunt.

Fuck yourself for putting this game on a pedestal.

You and your sadness can go and get fucked.

fuck

just fuck

Nothing major, just little tid bits.

I never truly believed the IPL would be in danger.

Its too big, too strong, and too finanicially important.

Perhaps I was wrong.

The IPL is set for the same time as the Indian general elections, a time when terrorism could already be happening, and India’s home minister a MR P Chidambaram thinks the IPL should be moved.

I think this is an UnIndian comment, surely the general election should be moved.

Had he said this before tuesday, which he may have as well, it would have gotten alot less coverage.

Now it gets covereage, it gets credence, and it may just mean the IPL has to find a new date.

Our man Lalit is on the case, but changing the dates at this stage would surely be impossible.

The 2011 world cup is now also being mentioned as something that may have to be looked into.

These attacks might have been aimed at Pakistan, but cricket seems to be limping away from them as well.

Obaid over at Well Pitched writes about rebuilding Pakistan, “And let us keep hoping that one day we will be able to ask another team to come play in one of our beautiful stadiums and that our children will be able watch a Waqar or a Shoaib steaming in to bowl. My anticipation builds like the noise of the crowd when they come in to bowl, but for now we must be patient.”

Cricketers have been injured playing our game.

It’s all sorts of fucked up.

But good things could be coming from this.

The limbo that Pakistan has been in, essentially since ’98, can finally be ended.

If they choose to play home games in England or somewhere else, they can build themselves up again.

Cricket can win from this horrlbe fucked up situation.

I for one am not ready to lose Pakistan.

And if they settle on a home outside of Pakistan, maybe they can be put back into the loop, become a real test playing nationa again.

Build up their team, start winning matches, and fill the all important whole they have left since they started fading out.

Cricket now has blood on its hands, and it owes it to the people who lost their lives in protecting the game.

Pakistan must continue to play cricket, they were born to play this game, and cricket will be poorer wihtout them.

If they have to play im bumfuch idaho or geelong, they should do it.

Kamran Abbasi from cricnfo nails it in one line, “This is the end,”

Sledgehammer from Wellpitched, Pakistan’s leading cricket blog, had this, “And let’s not forget the security entourage that is responsible for protecting the teams. It seems like they did their job. May their families find the patience and fortitude to deal with their irreplaceable losses.”

Damith gives the world a Sri Lankan perspective, “It felt like somebody I knew was in the middle of all this. We live the game, so much so that the players are like a part of our own family. Our own blood.”

Dileep talks about cricket as a religion, “After this, anyone that says cricket is a religion on the subcontinent needs to be sent to Swat to confront the forces that are intent on dragging one part of Pakistan back to the dark ages.” and in another piece talks about being fooled “The Doosra had consistently expressed the view that teams should tour Pakistan. Like Imran Khan and many others, I was fooled into believing that cricketers and other sportspersons would never be targetted. Those illusions have been shattered now”

John from Island express keeps it short and sweet, “”But terrorits never attack cricketers or cricket venues!” is an argument that I will never make again.”

Moses talks from an Australian perspective, “I have to admit that I’ve been disappointed with Australia not touring Pakistan since 1998, citing the tired old line of security concerns for the continued cancellations. However, my view has now most certainly changed with today’s news”

Soulberry talks about how long is a long time, “Everybody writing or speaking about the fidayeen terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers at Lahore today, speaks about no cricketer/team wanting to play in Pakistan, and no tournaments likely to be held in Pakistan, for a long while. I’m wondering what that “long while” means?

And then the Atheist talks from Germany, where cricket news takes longer to get to, and so he talks about Belguim, “Cricket was, in fact, invented by Muhammad Ibn Arabi in 1195, somewhere in Northern Africa. It was believed to have started when, after dispatching a camel in a particularly savage style, the Arabic poet had nothing left to better with his enormous “Grāy-ničoułs”, and therefore used the stocks from a nearby orphanage.”

I was immersed in the article.

There was at least 15 drafts, and i hated everyone of them.

During that time I didn’t realise that a little piece of cricket was dying.

I was so wrapped up in my shit I didn’t even check the cricket sites.

While I was working Sri Lanka players were attacked by terrorists.

Our brother Pakistan may never recover from this.

A terrorist attack on players was the worst possible thing that could happen to cricket.

It was the nightmare scenario, crickets real loss of innocence.

We know our sport is in the firing line more than most others, but now it has been fired on.

It didn’t matter if the players were wounded or not, Samaraweera received a bullet in the thigh, all that mattered is that touring players are no longer safe in Pakistan.

And cricket cannot be played there.

Imran Khan said that terrorists would not attack cricketers as they would lose the support of the people, i said it only takes one terrorist stupid enough to forget that and cricketers will be attacked.

I have never wished I was wrong more.

I fucken love Pakistan, and one of my dreams was to travel there and cover a Pakistani series.

My dream is now lodged in Samaraweera’s thigh.

Pakistan can play on as a nomad team, but they will fade away doing this, they are a passionate team, and cannot survive a wandering life.

King Kumar, ever the eloquent man, had this to say “I don’t regret coming here to play cricket because that’s what we have been doing all our lives. That is our profession.”

I love the sentiment, but the ICC can’t afford to let a tour happen there again.

Not for a very long time.

Our brother is ill, and may never recover.

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

Tragic tragic stuff.

But this is not a sympathetic sight for dead people, this is a cricket site.

And Australia are going to India.

Bombs or no bombs.

This may confuse Pakistanis.

But it is simple, India means money, Pakistan means terrorists.

That is the mantra of Cricket Australia, and the Australian cricket team.

So Australia might kick up a little dirt, but the truth is in Shane Watson’s and Shane Warne’s wallet.

It will take a big mother fucker of a bomb to stop the Australian team touring to India.

I’m talking like a September 11 type bomb on steriods.

Mountains will need to fall in order for Australia to ever not travel to India due to terrorism.

20 people dying is not big enough.

80 people dying wasn’t enough to move Warne, Lehmann, Berry and Watson.

And there are like 30 Australians traveling to India for this tour.

You do the maths.

Like i have said before, it’s hard to hear bombs while you are counting your money.