posted Aug 25, 2008

Seems Taliban have done another sucessful suicide bombing. This time, as always, the victims are the Pakistan's innocent masses who are deprived of watching their favourite cricketers in action in their home soil. Again they are the victims and are deprived of an opportunity to let go of the daily price pressures of various commodities which has made feeding of family a daily nightmare for the many of them. Seems that when it comes time to talk big against terror the western countries are in the fore front but when it is time to act and support countries made forcefully part of this alliance it is time to take a back seat and do nothing. Alas! Mandela is no more controlling the destiny of South Africa. It is now controlled by the same old regime with balck faces.

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posted Aug 25, 2008

faisalamalik, if only you knew what you were talking about where south africa is concerned. south africa is merely going down the same route as other african countries. it has nothing to do with the 'old regime'. And before you say I'm racist, yes I am white, and yes I am south african, but I do support Change and reconciliation. And no, I hated the old regime.

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posted Aug 25, 2008

faisalamalik,
from reports there were 5 countries refusing to participate. (We don't know who the 5th country was, but it is easy to guess.) Seems unfair to single out and criticise SA.

I am sure many deeply regret the difficulties facing Pak at the moment and have sympathy for those affected. However, controlling your country's internal religious zenophobic nutters is something that needs to be tackled by you and your countrymen, not our cricketers.

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posted Aug 25, 2008

"GenesisTub,

I am talking about Sri Lanka, not about Pakistan..You should read my whole post rather than pick up parts of it and blow it out of proportions...Can you tell me how many times foreigneres were targeted in SriLanka??

It has been 3 years since that London bombings took place and i won't blame Australia if they tour now...i'm talking about 2005...

I'm pretty sure if you were related to any of those victims of the July 7 bombings, you wouldn't talk about all these 'Common sense' and 'risk weightings'...great security systems and intelligence capability cannot prevent bombings of that nature...we have been told the underground would be a target from 2003, but it did happen in 2005...& when it did happen many of the people living here in London lost trust with any of the assurance given by the government or the security. How come a bunch of Australian cricketers on tour manage to trust them? Why wouldn't they play in SriLanka in 1996 when they know for sure that they won't be a target of the rebels? "

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I had a quick look on Yahoo, typed in "suicide bombings in Sri Lanka". The site that came up listed 26 bombings by one group since 2001.

There has been 1 , repeat 1 successful coordinated attack on London in that time. The Aussies don't care if these guys are targeting Sri Lankans or foreigners. You could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and history tells us that there are lots of wrong places and wrong times in Sri Lanka, but not many at all in England.

Oh by the way, I was on the train before TWO of the bombs (King's Cross AND Liverpool Street - in fact my route to work was Piccadilly line to King's Cross then circle line to Liverpool St.). If I had missed the train that I got on that morning, I could have been dead. Or if there hadn't been a Circle line train in that spare 3 minutes, I could have been dead. Still, I like everyone else was back in work on the Monday (my route was closed on the Friday), because we knew that it was a one-off - it hadn't happened before and it was unlikely to happen again, relative to instances in sub-continental countries, for example.

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posted Aug 25, 2008

That Nonsense Talker - spot on mate. What a waste of time this has all been. The ICC CT should never have awarded to Pakistan in the first place. At that time Pakistan was extremely risky and it has only got worse since then. Pakistan has to first clean up its mess and most countries including the 5 ICC members with real concerns have been and continue to be willing to help Pakistan but the problems affecting issues way beyond and far more important than cricket in Pakistan come from within Pakistan and including its tribal fighting.

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posted Aug 25, 2008

It is all a farce. If Pakistan had a multi-billion dollar IPL then the players who are so concerned will be queuing up to get there. The fact is the ICC and the respect boards said it was safe to go. The world is not a safe place. End of story. The danger is players will start to pick and chose where they go to tour rather than having the pride to put on the shirt and do whatever it takes to represent their country. Very disappointing all round.

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posted Aug 26, 2008

"Let's be honest. When our own people are not safe in the country, then how can we guarantee the safety of foreigners?"
Abdul Qadir

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posted Aug 26, 2008

A good decision because the champions trophy is rubbish anyway...

What i really want to know is why my employers still think its safe for me to go to Islamabad next week!

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posted Aug 26, 2008

"The fact is the ICC and the respect boards said it was safe to go. The world is not a safe place. End of story."

Pakistan is a more dangerous place than most.

1000+ deaths from bombings in Pakistan over the last year is 1000+ more deaths than in NZ, Australia, England, West Indies and South Africa *combined* over the same period. End of story.

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posted Aug 27, 2008

"In Pak, another minority (differing only from the majority in ideology, not identifiably different by race, religion etc) targets moderates, westerners etc."

"Nonsense talker" can you tell me how many westerners have been killed in the last 10 suicide bombs that have gone off in Pakistan! The fact is that suicide bombers donīt discriminate, and the Afghan muslim killed on 7/7 is evidence of this! More muslims have died at the hands of al qaeda than westerners, and thats even when you take 911 into account!!

I agree with most people on here that Pakistan is a very dangerous place to go as an outsider, but the fact is that the decision should be left to the security experts rather than players whose only info. of that country comes from Rupert Murdoch!

As far as one poster who said that the players are justified in their reasoning to choose to go to India because of the possible financial gains, despite the risk there, I would say to him that cricketers shouldnīt have the choice of touring a country based on the financial benefits, but only on the security situation which is why the decision should have been left to security experts and no player should have intervened. Furthermore they are international sportsment and have a responsibility to entertain the cricket fans. Again security should be left to experts not buffoons like Pietersen who probably canīt even spell terrorism!

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