‘Sports and the sublime spirit of sportsmanship must be left alone, far away from political, religious or any other kind of ideology. Like many other interactions in life, sport does represent conflict but unlike the others, it is conflict that raises the



The brutal attack on visiting Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan last month is one more unfortunate outcome of the civilised world’s failure to curb the growing menace of terrorism.
For a long time now, terrorist networks have been carefully planning, casing out and then finally executing their dastardly terrorist acts with a view to extracting the maximum possible media mileage in a bid to further the convoluted rationale behind whatever cause they may be fighting for.
In the past, they have engaged in hijackings of commercial aircraft and other transport, assassinated high profile politicians and celebrities, and then moved on to bombing monuments and places of interest while simultaneously killing innocent people in large numbers, as in the case of the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 that cost nearly 3000 lives.
Attacking visiting sports teams is the latest tactic, though not entirely new. One of the first major attacks on any sports team was at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games when a militant group called Black September kidnapped and later killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympics squad. The group is alleged to have had links with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s organisation, Fatah. The authorities swiftly moved into action and managed to kill the terrorists but not before 11 innocent lives of top grade sportsmen were lost.
Though there is no formal worldwide pact that seeks to protect sports teams from terrorist attacks, the terror organisations have, since the Munich attack nearly four decades ago, left the sports world alone. This obviously has to do with the immense popularity that sportspeople enjoy and the strong following that sport has all over the world.
Alienating sports fans by robbing the thrill of sporting engagements and the competitive spirit was like risking whatever support the terrorists’ causes had at the grassroot level. So, tacitly, terrorist groups have left sportspeople and sports events alone in the decades since Munich.
But what happened in Lahore is a clear departure from that tacit understanding. Terrorist organisations have become increasingly desperate to demonstrate to not only the people of their own country but to the rest of the world that their writ runs and that they can strike at will with nothing that can stop them in the pursuit of their cause.
In the process they have alienated whatever little tolerance that might have been shown toward them by the masses. For cricket, like everywhere else in South Asia—in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka—is followed with almost a religious zeal in Pakistan. Cricketers are like superstars if not like demigods: the popularity of many of them is wider and endures far more than that of even top movie stars.
The fact that the purveyors of terror have thought it fit to risk grassroot support to their cause by alienating masses of the cricket-mad public underscores their determination to spread their own brand of brutal ideology based on mindless violence with absolutely no consideration for civility.
As well as sending signals to the world about its growing hold even in Pakistan’s cities far away from their long-time stranglehold of the provinces in the northwest, the terror network has sought to tell the common people in no uncertain terms as to whose writ runs in the land.
The government on its part has been able to do little, both before and after the despicable event: before—by promising but not ensuring the best possible security despite widespread rumours of a threat to their lives and after, by sloppy investigations that have left the world angry at its inability to bring the culprits to book even weeks after the event.
The sporting world has been left shell-shocked by the events in Pakistan. It naturally follows that sports lovers of not just the subcontinent but the entire world—especially in this era of instant satellite television and live streaming internet—have been robbed of exciting sports engagements in South Asia—at least in the foreseeable future.
There is no doubt that international sports teams will have no choice but to indefinitely suspend their plans of visiting and playing in Pakistan. But what is deeply unfortunate is that because of that, it will cast a shadow on neighbouring India.
The hugely popular and successful Indian Premier League cricketing tournament that sees star cricketers from all over the world play there will without doubt suffer some consequences as the players’ countries issue warnings of travelling and staying in the subcontinent.
In that sense, the merchants of terror have succeeded in turning Pakistan into the pariah of sport—and no one seems to have the answer as to how that perception may be reversed. This is because of the poor and rapidly deteriorating governance in that country.
Sadly, though, it is not exclusively terrorist networks that target sport, sportspeople and sporting events. Instances of spectator intolerance and violence between rival supporters at sports venues and even acts of heckling, teasing and unsportsmanlike behaviour towards players have been on the rise across the world. Unfortunately, this has begun to happen in peaceful Pacific countries as well.
One of the latest incidents was the terrible treatment that the Fiji Rugby Union sevens selection team received from the spectators during the Marist Sevens fixtures. While the crowds booed and openly swore at them, there seemed to be a deliberate attempt by other teams to hurt them. This is nothing else but bringing politics to the sports field—something that is not very different from how the terrorists have brought their ideology into the sporting world.
In the current cricket series between New Zealand and India, spectators in Christchurch threw bottles and other debris at Indian fieldsmen in the outfields closer to the stands despite the presence of guards specially deployed to prevent such incidents. Play was held up on more than a couple of occasions because of this irresponsible crowd behaviour.
Sports and the sublime spirit of sportsmanship must be left alone, far away from political, religious or any other kind of ideology. Like many other interactions in life, sport does represent conflict but unlike the others, it is conflict that raises the human spirit to a higher level.