By Welshwillow
The BBC website is appealing for information:
Were you at the game in Lahore? Did you witness the shooting? Tell us your thoughts by filling in the form below. Do not endanger yourself or others.
I think about Faisal. Undoubtedly he has plenty to say about this – and I know he will say it; eloquently, forcibly, loudly. And without fear.
But from my safe haven across the world I can rail against this violence that’s hit my world of cricket so hard. Do these bastards want your lovely country to be isolated from the rest of the world? They must do – there can be no other reason for this. Sri Lanka were the one team brave enough to flout the security advice and travel anyway; to bring Test cricket back to a nation with little enough to smile about. Yesterday we were moaning about flat pitches killing our beloved game – now the stakes are raised.
In response, the international cricket community must welcome the Pakistani team with open arms. We must offer our facilities and our pitches; we must provide them with somewhere safe to play their international matches so that the Pakistani game will not die. Fling open the gates of Lord’s, Headingley and my beloved Rose Bowl – make them home grounds for our welcome visitors. Hang up their flags, welcome their media – make sure the fans at home in Karachi and Lahore can follow every ball.
Because if we don’t, terrorism and isolationism will win. There will be nothing for young cricketers in Pakistan to aspire to. We have to preserve this nation’s cricketing future until it is safe for it to return home.
There has been talk of making a partnership with ECB for neutral venues as your grounds are empty at the time of our season. Besides that there is a huge presence of fans of both Pakistan and India in England and thus matches would be sold out if say a tri nations is organized between the three countries. There was a column in the local paper as well in relation to this. We must now all come together as citizens of this world in order to save us all from annihilation. Cricket or otherwise we must all come together against these assholes..or we are done for one country at a time.
It is sad that our governments try to exert political mileage from these circumstances… we must all surely realize that we face this threat together. As an indian it is embarrassing for me to see my leaders blame Pakistan for everything, as i am sure it must be for you Faisal, good to see you back WW 🙂 keep writing.