Playing cricket in Pakistan is the safest of occupations
Columnist By Geoff Lawson, 20 Oct 2008 Geoff Lawson is a Roar Expert
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As international cricket venues go the King City Stadium (a very loose term) in the outskirts on Toronto must certainly rate as one of the most picturesque. Set in the western outskirts of the Ontario capital it would be the equivalent of Bradman Oval in Bowral or perhaps Lilac Hill in the Swan Valley, home of the annual Chairman’s XI versus the touring team.
The recently conducted four cornered way 20/20 tournament between Sri Lanka, Canada, Zimbabwe and Pakistan provided a 21st century view of where international cricket is heading, in more ways than one.
October is generally not the month to be playing cricket north of the 45th parallel but Ontario turned on its very best weather for the four days after an extraordinarily wet summer.
The NHL ice hockey league opened that weekend with the Toronto Maple Leafs getting hammered at the home opener by 5 goals. Could be a long winter for the Blue and Whites.
The local cricketers, Iqbal and Rashid, told me that their season generally only runs 3 ½ months and the finals had already been conducted. While the temperatures ran from 6 degrees centigrade overnight and made a sweltering 27 on the final afternoon. (The French had the metric system well established in Canada years before we dipped our toes in the antipodes, while an hour’s drive south across the border the yanks still measured miles, feet, inches and Fahrenheit.) In Saskatchewan, on the prairies of western Canada, in was snowing!!
The red maples at fine leg were turning even redder, the ash and beech at 3rd man, a golden brown and the sugar maple at mid wicket, a deep gold. You could stare at the trees for ages if not distracted by the seamless azure sky.
Canada has 70,000 cricketers and 700 clubs, many of which are in Toronto. Most are ex-pat Sri Lankans, Indians, West Indians and Pakistanis.
Those at the game had mostly Canadian twangs accenting their English urdu. The passion that sub-continental supporters have for the game and their teams is in no way diluted in north America, they just dress more western style. Although a few dupattas and head scarves were spotted, most ladies were colloquially attired with face paint and jeans. I didn’t spy a beer tent though.
The ground itself is a recent addition to the cricket venues of Toronto with a number of tournaments previously played at the Toronto Curling, Skating and Cricket Club where Australian touring teams had played in the 1970s on their way through to the Ashes. An excellent fielding surface but the pitches, so late in the season, had lost their pace and found plenty of spin. Ideal for Sri Lanka’s new found spinning match winner Jayantha Mendis.
Mendis not only won the man of the series award, an apartment in Dubai provided by the sponsors of the tournament Al Barrakah Developments, but attracted the attention of a group of protesters.
It was quite bizarre to drive into the ground on the 3rd day to find 30-40 placard wielding Sri Lankans lining the Bloomfield Road armed with signs demanding ‘The end to Genocide in Sri Lanka’ and ‘Mendis is a killer’.
I knew he was taking plenty of wickets but he wasn’t bowling fast enough to cause a haematoma let alone a fatality . The reference was to his vocation as a Lieutenant and gunner in the Sri Lankan army.
On inquiry with the Sri Lankan team they reckon he had never even fired a gun and spent all his time practicing cricket (as did 3 other members of the national cricket squad). On the final afternoon a Cessna floated across the ground dragging another sign demanding ‘….an end to the killing’.
I thought this was a most peaceful way to voice the concerns of the Tamil people, you could not even hear the engine above the crowd noise and the vivid blue sky was only interrupted every 10 minutes or so as the light plane did its laps, and if you didn’t look up, you wouldn’t even know it was there.
My view changed slightly when the Sri Lankan coach, Trevor Bayliss, said that his team were quite concerned as the LTTE rebels had been using Cessnas to dump explosives from a few hundred feet. It just didn’t seem right. This was a cricket idyll, full house, postcard ground, ideal weather, a close, exciting final … and a terror threat.
But that folks is the way of the world at this end of the 21st century.
The dangers of living in Pakistan seemed minuscule compared to the adjacent protesters and the thought that the aircraft circling unopposed, a few hundred feet above us, might be carrying some dangerous material.
Playing cricket in Pakistan is the safest of occupations and the grounds are the safest places to spend your time. If you follow 3 basic rules the chances of being in the wrong place at the wrong time are zero. Not close to zero but the actual number.
1. Don’t go near politicians
2. Don’t attend public political rallies
3. Don’t go to gatherings of police or army
The recently completed 5 day post Ramazan 20/20 Cricket tournament with a dozen regional teams was played in Lahore just prior to our departure for Canada (i.e the final finished at 9pm and the Etihad flight lifted at 10:45 pm).
The Qaddafi Stadium had 25,000 for the final, there were three matches a day, coloured uniforms, a festival atmosphere and not one moment of trouble.
But try to tell that to ferengi (foreigners) who just don’t want to listen.
Geoff ‘Henry’ Lawson played 46 Tests for Australia and is currently the national cricket coach of Pakistan. He joins The Roar as a columnist. Welcome aboard, Henry!
Geoff Lawson OAM is a former Australian cricketer and the former coach of the Pakistan cricket team. Nicknamed "Henry" after the Australian poet, Lawson was a fast bowler for New South Wales and Australia.
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October 20th 2008 @ 7:59am
sheek said | October 20th 2008 @ 7:59am | Report comment
Geoff,
Appearing recently on Andrew Denton’s show ‘Enough Rope’, Imran Khan offered the view that terrorism is a battle of hearts & minds. This was his lead in to declare that Australian cricketers touring Pakistan would be 100 percent safe, because no terrorist, however crazy we may perceive him to be, would harm cricketers.
Because to harm cricketers would lead to loss of support among the cricket loving population, & thus, most importantly for terrorists, control of the peoples’ hearts & minds.
If someone as wise & sensible & practical & proven & revered as Imran Khan isn’t listened to, then we’re a very stupid human race (which I think we already are collectively).
October 20th 2008 @ 9:07am
dasilva said | October 20th 2008 @ 9:07am | Report comment
sheek
I have no doubt that the terrorist will not target Australian Cricketers or any cricketers in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India etc.
However when New Zealand tour Pakistan early this decade was a bomb blast very near their hotel. The NZ cricketers then sore the horrors of the bomb blast that scarred some of the players which caused the tour to be cancel. The bomb wasn’t targeting the cricketers but that doesn’t mean that the players can’t be caught in the crossfire as New Zealand Cricketers were only a few metres from being directly affected by the bomb.
The question is not where the cricketers are being target by terrorist but how stable the country is and what is the chance of Australia being inadvertably caught up with the instability.
That’s for the ACB and ICC security delagation to determine. However saying that. If it is determine that the risk is minimum then players must be compulsory tour or risk losing central contract with the ACB. It shouldn’t be left to players to make personal judgement on security.
October 20th 2008 @ 9:16am
Terry Kidd said | October 20th 2008 @ 9:16am | Report comment
I say that we leave it to the players to decide. If they say ‘no’ then so be it because they are the people who would be directly affected.
October 20th 2008 @ 9:26am
Harry said | October 20th 2008 @ 9:26am | Report comment
dasilva has it right. I accept cricketers won’t be targeted as such but I have to report that a good mate of mine, who has been doing business with and travelling to Pakistan reguarly for 12 years (he’s a software developer) was held up at gunpoint and robbed on his last visit (on the drive in from the airport) there. He likes the country and its people but said it has defientely becaome more and more dangerous and unsettled in the last 3 years in particular and in retrospect this very dangerous and scary incident was not surprising. Happened in June this year and he is not returning any time soon. Good on Geoff Lawson and Imran Khan for stating their view (although neither can hardly be termed unbiased) but I would be heeding the advice of the security experts before them.
October 20th 2008 @ 12:02pm
Bring Back Melon said | October 20th 2008 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
What a crock!
You think the sort of people that blow up innocent civilians – women and children – holidaying in Bali or where will give baulk at blowing up these people because the play cricket?!?
Terrorists don’t just target politicians or authority figures. Australian cricketers as symbols of “the West”, of “capitalism” and of “heathens” (non-Muslims) make PERFECT targets.
I’m sorry – it gives me shudders – but it’s true.
October 20th 2008 @ 1:23pm
Millster said | October 20th 2008 @ 1:23pm | Report comment
I’m just thrilled that ‘Henry’ is part of the Roar crew and want to say a big welcome from the humble punters like us. I’ve become rather jaded of cricket lately, but my fondest memories are of watching this fine sir and the rest of the Alan Border guys from the 1980s while growing up on the west coast. We’d regularly come back from a morning of surfing as kids to watch Henry, along with McDermott, Hughes, Alderman and others take it to whoever was against us… at least insofar as we could make out on some dodgy grainy TV in a Margaret River holiday house!
So welcome Geoff, we are happy and humbled to have you in our midst.
October 20th 2008 @ 3:05pm
Greg Russell said | October 20th 2008 @ 3:05pm | Report comment
I would like to echo Millster’s welcome to Geoff Lawson.
I fully appreciate the sympathies behind Geoff’s article, but I have to agree with dasilva’s simple rebuttal of the “zero risk” strategy. Just as the NZ cricketers in 2002 were following Geoff’s three rules, so too were the people at the Islamabad Marriott a month ago. Indeed, the original Champions Trophy schedule had international cricketers staying at that very hotel on that very night.
The best text that I read on the cancellation of the Champions Trophy was the following by Sambit Bal on cricinfo. I don’t think it requires any commentary:
“Living in the shadow of the bomb has become a way of life on the subcontinent, so much so that it would be impossible to carry on otherwise. But is it fair to expect the same level of detachment and equanimity from those accustomed to a different way of life? However exaggerated their fears may be, and however ill-informed the security advice may be, the allowance for a different perception must be made and respected.
After all, cricketers are neither diplomats nor soldiers; is it reasonable to expect them to put the game, and the misfortune of another cricket board, above concerns over their personal well-being? Many of these players are heroes on the field but few aspire to heroism in life outside it, and they shouldn’t be judged for it.”
November 23rd 2008 @ 6:34pm
challa said | November 23rd 2008 @ 6:34pm | Report comment
IF I understand this correctly, the argument goes like this: because cricket is played in a country such as Sri Lanka which has been at civil war for ages then it is ok to play in Pakistan.
My first year statistics teacher would take great umbrage at the logic in this statement.
I would also suggest there is empirical evidence to support the notion that Pakistan is one helluva place to visit. For instance, Pakistan makes the Forbes top ten list of dangerous places on the planet to visit. The journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and executed in Pakistan. Newseek recently rated Pakistan as more dangerous than Iran. Not to mention the on and off war with India and its military dictatorship of some 40 on and off years.
Henry, it is not the gora who are the problem here. This is a real dangerous place and denying that would be a dangerous act in itself.
January 3rd 2009 @ 4:32pm
ChomFa said | January 3rd 2009 @ 4:32pm | Report comment
While I admire Geoff Lawson (and have done so for many years, Henry) his “take” on this situation is, sadly and dangerously, well short of acurate. There are several reputable sources which report terrorist organisations – most notably Laskar e-Toiba but also some other fringe groups claiming affiliation with AQ- who have publicly stated that International cricketers are a “legitimate” target.
I have been writing about terrorism and the ideology that inspires it, since 9/11. The posturing for “position”, some insane sense of “legitimacy”, a grab for “hearts and minds”; one of those motivations will drive one group or another to make an attempt. I am not the type to readily indulge in hyperbole. The ebb and flow of terrorist activities goes hand in hand with political demands. Terror is the iron fist that underlines all of the political manouverings in Islamic lands – no sense denying it.
I feel sure that it is a case of “when”, not “if”…… mores the pity.
March 3rd 2009 @ 3:38pm
Gavin said | March 3rd 2009 @ 3:38pm | Report comment
The events of today hopefully shuts up Geoff Lawson for a while. Terrorism does not follow logical and rational patterns.