Intermingle of politics and sports have gone off the track more often than not. As far as my memory goes the first such instance that I can recollect is the Basil D’Oliveira affair where the matters pertaining to South African born English cricketer’s selection to the then racially segregated South Africa culminated in the latter becoming the ‘pariah’ of the Sporting World. South Africa was plagued by sporting isolation from April 1971 to June 1991 as a result of the Gleneagles agreement mooted by the Commonwealth Forum.
However political ideologies taking a violent turn first came to light in 1972 at the Munich Olympics. At 4:30AM on September 5, 1972, five Arab terrorists wearing track suits climbed the six and 1/2 foot fence surrounding the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany. Once inside, they were met by three others who had gained entrance with credentials. Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five terrorists, and a German policeman were dead. That incident shocked the entire peace loving world which has just recovered from a decimating Second World War two and a half decades before.
Travelling from our own door step, Sri Lanka first experienced an act of political/racial hatred way back in 1979 when a group of Tamil sympathisers dug up the pitch that the Lankan team was down to play in a ICC World Cup match in England – mind you, that was even before Sri Lanka became a full member of the ICC.
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| This occurred during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. An LTTE sympathiser runs across the playing field while a Sri Lankan match is in progress. The performer was caught and evicted. Since then, activity has taken a turn to the worse |
Thereafter this pattern has sporadically continued wherever Sri Lanka has played – especially cricket. Though not in a very violent manner, the Tamil separatist sympathisers have continued with their anti Sri Lankan antics through the years in many cricketing forums.
Once they flew over a small aircraft depicting anti Sri Lankan slogans over the ground where the Lankan team was playing. Then at the last World Cup in 2007 in the Caribbean an LTTE sympathiser got into the playing area sporting a LTTE flag while a Lankan match was on and ran around till he was caught and evicted. In another incident when the Lankan team was in Canada in 2008 to take part in a 20-20 tie against Pakistan there were anti Lankan demonstrations at the venue and some of it had been directly accented against spinner Ajantha Mendis because he is an active soldier of the Sri Lankan Army.
There was another unforgettable incident. It was the final of the 2007 World Cup played in the West Indies and Sri Lanka was taking on Australia in the final and the game was running deep into the Lankan night. Almost every all Sri Lankan (I suppose some in the active military too) were glued to their television sets watching the proceedings when suddenly the LTTE Aircraft began to pound mayhem in and around Colombo. That is the time the Lankans woke up from the bad dream which assumed that the guys up North are also huge cricket fans and they too would be following the final like the rest of the country.
The next incident that involved Sri Lanka Cricket and World politics ended up with a huge change in the status-quo.
Masked terrorists armed with automatic weapons on March 3 opened relentless fire at the convoy of the Sri Lankan cricket team as it headed for Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium.
Six of those killed in the assault were police bodyguards meant to provide security to the team, while two bystanders also lost their lives as the terrorists wrought mayhem in the area for almost 25 minutes. That incident was responsible for the loss lives of eight Pakistanis and injured six Lankan players.
A group of 12 gunmen carrying rocket launchers and grenades had targeted the team bus about 500 yards from Gaddafi stadium, where Sri Lanka was to play Pakistan on the third day of their second cricket test.
Now it has been revealed that three men said to belong to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terror group have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attack.
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| This is in the aftermath of the Lahore carnage, where the Lankan cricketers were targeted by terrorists. |
However the repercussions of this incident culminated in Pakistan (at least for the time being) losing hosting rights of the 2011 World Cup as well the Indian premier League being moved out of India for security reasons.
However in the aftermath it were the Lankan cricketers who faced trauma. Two of the Lankan cricketers who spoke to the Sunday Musings upon their return to the island said that they would never return to Pakistan to play cricket. Though still the Lankans officially have not played as a unit, most of them did take part as individuals in the Indian Premier League Tournament matches played in South Africa.
The Lankan cricket team left for England to take part in the T20 World Cup on Thursday.
Some people of stature who follow the cricket as well as the world political scenario very closely feel that the Lankan cricketers may be at peril. For the past eight or more weeks the anti Lankan fervor has been taking the city of London by storm. Many non-Tamil Lankans have felt the blatant wrath of this Tamil Diaspora who is now smarting with the eventualities that have occurred in Sri Lanka. Many shops owned by Sri Lankan Sinhalese have been attacked and even Buddhist temples have been desecrated.
Will the Lankan cricketers be room bound during this trip to England? Would any individual player’s well being be at stake if he decides to a stroll to the shopping arcade?
When inquired from the secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Nishantha Ranatunga he quipped; “Our Security Consultant Rtd. Maj. Gen. Lawrence Fernando is in England at present making a close study of the situation at hand and meeting the relevant personnel with regard to it. He is also due to meet the ICC and the T20 security arm also on the general safety of players.”
Even politically the situation in England is not disposed well towards the Lankan cause. Can we count on the safety of Lankan players during their outing, or would some desperate bloke try to make the Lankan Cricketers target practice? |
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