Sri Lankan cricketers shot in Pakistan

[rod_rooster]

Good to hear that the injuries sustained are all minor.

Apart from the dead police and security staff. It's easy to forget them but they were only doing their jobs and they get killed for it. You have to feel for people in countries where violence and terrorism is so rife. It's easy to take for granted how lucky we have it here.

[heater31]

Bye Bye Pakistan. Hope Kenya can take their spot.

Not sure what you mean by that Pidge? It isn't the fault of the Pakistani players themselves and i believe international cricket still has a place for Pakistan. I for one don't want to see the cricketers punished for what some people have done in their country. They will just have to play their 'home' fixtures at a neutral venue. Kenya are nowhere near international standard IMO.

Bye Bye to cricket in Pakistan is likely but not bye bye to Pakistan IMO.

yep its definitely Pakistan playing neutral games for the immediate future. No good banning them from cricket then punishes the players who have nothing to do with this. Plus there is no stand out country in the 2nd tier structure that could be anywhere near in the competitive stakes as say Bangladesh

[Pidge]

Bye Bye Pakistan. Hope Kenya can take their spot.

Not sure what you mean by that Pidge? It isn't the fault of the Pakistani players themselves and i believe international cricket still has a place for Pakistan. I for one don't want to see the cricketers punished for what some people have done in their country. They will just have to play their 'home' fixtures at a neutral venue. Kenya are nowhere near international standard IMO.

Bye Bye to cricket in Pakistan is likely but not bye bye to Pakistan IMO.

yep its definitely Pakistan playing neutral games for the immediate future. No good banning them from cricket then punishes the players who have nothing to do with this. Plus there is no stand out country in the 2nd tier structure that could be anywhere near in the competitive stakes as say Bangladesh

Yeah good points. But by playing games at neutral venues, there will not be much money going back into Pakistani cricket, which will be bad for the them. Maybe they will lose a few players to ICL or IPL?

[heater31]

Bye Bye Pakistan. Hope Kenya can take their spot.

Not sure what you mean by that Pidge? It isn't the fault of the Pakistani players themselves and i believe international cricket still has a place for Pakistan. I for one don't want to see the cricketers punished for what some people have done in their country. They will just have to play their 'home' fixtures at a neutral venue. Kenya are nowhere near international standard IMO.

Bye Bye to cricket in Pakistan is likely but not bye bye to Pakistan IMO.

yep its definitely Pakistan playing neutral games for the immediate future. No good banning them from cricket then punishes the players who have nothing to do with this. Plus there is no stand out country in the 2nd tier structure that could be anywhere near in the competitive stakes as say Bangladesh

Yeah good points. But by playing games at neutral venues, there will not be much money going back into Pakistani cricket, which will be bad for the them. Maybe they will lose a few players to ICL or IPL?

play their games in England plenty of expats around that part of the world and still be able to get some money flowing into the bank

[Il Duce]

Yeah me think Dubai can't really think were else. England would all ready have there own full schedule during the summer, i would think they would need a country that doesnt play test cricket

[wycbloods]

Bye Bye Pakistan. Hope Kenya can take their spot.

Not sure what you mean by that Pidge? It isn't the fault of the Pakistani players themselves and i believe international cricket still has a place for Pakistan. I for one don't want to see the cricketers punished for what some people have done in their country. They will just have to play their 'home' fixtures at a neutral venue. Kenya are nowhere near international standard IMO.

Bye Bye to cricket in Pakistan is likely but not bye bye to Pakistan IMO.

yep its definitely Pakistan playing neutral games for the immediate future. No good banning them from cricket then punishes the players who have nothing to do with this. Plus there is no stand out country in the 2nd tier structure that could be anywhere near in the competitive stakes as say Bangladesh

Yeah good points. But by playing games at neutral venues, there will not be much money going back into Pakistani cricket, which will be bad for the them. Maybe they will lose a few players to ICL or IPL?[/quote]

yes that is a good chance to happen i would think.

[Dirko]

Geez. Sad news. Hope all the little Lankans are safe and getting better.

Bloody hell the Paki's may be in a bit of trouble now. Can't see International cricket being played there for a long time.
Perhaps the Emirates or Qatar may step up and offer pitches....

P.S Mods can the title be changed to make more sense ?

[Pup]

I would not count on the ICL being around for as long as people think.

[wycbloods]

Geez. Sad news. Hope all the little Lankans are safe and getting better.

Bloody hell the Paki's may be in a bit of trouble now. Can't see International cricket being played there for a long time.
Perhaps the Emirates or Qatar may step up and offer pitches....

P.S Mods can the title be changed to make more sense ?

Geez SJABC can't you read properly?

[spell_check]

I can't add anything to the above apart from saying it goes to show all these "security measures" are worth nothing.

And thankfully our umpires Steve Davis and Simon Taufel escaped too.

[wycbloods]

Good to hear that the injuries sustained are all minor.

Apart from the dead police and security staff. It's easy to forget them but they were only doing their jobs and they get killed for it. You have to feel for people in countries where violence and terrorism is so rife. It's easy to take for granted how lucky we have it here.

yes i feel for them and their families but i was just referring to the cricket side of things though RR.

[JK]

Yeah good points. But by playing games at neutral venues, there will not be much money going back into Pakistani cricket, which will be bad for the them. Maybe they will lose a few players to ICL or IPL?

yes that is a good chance to happen i would think.

Well it's up to the government to improve the running of their country I'd guess, both to make a concerted effort to clean the place up and if cricket is important enough they can contribute funding ... Perhaps some of the players will consider relocation and naturalisation somewhere else?

Sad sad day, but you got the feeling something like this was always just a matter of time, thankfully I guess it's not as disastrous as it could have been if all players make a healthy recovery, but as RR said, try telling the families of the 5 deceased policemen that.

Just shattering whats happened.

[Il Duce]

Fox sports are saying its the Taliban

[Dog_ger]

Absolute Tragic World Event.

[Interceptor]

Sounds like it could have been a lot worse if not for the efforts of the police who died:

Police chief Habibur Rehman said there were 12 masked gunmen and police battled against the assailants for about 25 minutes.

"They appeared to be well-trained terrorists. They came on rickshaws. They were armed with rockets, hand grenades, Kalashnikovs."

"Five policemen who were providing protection to the team sacrificed their lives," he added.

from http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2009/03/03/1235842399528.html

[Lightning McQueen]

Geez. Sad news. Hope all the little Lankans are safe and getting better.

Bloody hell the Paki's may be in a bit of trouble now. Can't see International cricket being played there for a long time.
Perhaps the Emirates or Qatar may step up and offer pitches....

P.S Mods can the title be changed to make more sense ?

Done Jabber.

[Il Duce]

Thilan Samaraweera
Kumar Sangakkara
Tharanga Paranavitana
Ajantha Mendis
Chaminda Vaas
Mahela Jayawardene
Trevor Bayliss (coach)
Ahsan Raza (reserve ump)

that the list of people who have injured

[hearts on fire]

What a terrible, terrible, terrible incident. I really feel for the Pakistani cricketers, they may never get to play in their home country again.

[Media Park]

Thilan Samaraweera
Kumar Sangakkara
Tharanga Paranavitana
Ajantha Mendis
Chaminda Vaas
Mahela Jayawardene
Trevor Bayliss (coach)
Ahsan Raza (reserve ump)

that the list of people who have injured

That's the list of cricket people injured...

I'm not sure, has the Test just finished, or is this mid-Test?

If mid-Test, that's 5 players they need to replace (with substitutes)...
Don't know anything about Tharanga Paranavitana, but the keeper needs to be out of the original eleven, and they'd be two bowlers down...

The cricket does pale in comparison though.

[spell_check]

Two days had only been played MP, and it's been abandoned/cancelled. Was likely to end in another draw anyway.