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The Australians had a point

Peter Roebuck

Followers of the game in the region may be inclined to regard the supposedly tough Australians as soft after their withdrawal from the tour of Pakistan.

Australia also refused to visit Sri Lanka in 1996 whereupon the local teams joined forces to stage a match of their own, a gesture of goodwill that pleased the paying public even as it exposed the feebleness of the Aussies.

But it is hard for mere players to ignore pictures splashed across front pages day after day, with blood streaming from gaping wounds and shock etched in faces.

Sportsmen are not prepared for that, did not sign that contract. Nor are they political sophisticates or statisticians able to weigh the odds. They see the photographs and read the copy and imagine themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.Certainly Western teams prepared to turn a deaf ear to threats in their own backyard have been too easily intimidated elsewhere. Their reluctance must upset hosts desperately trying to advance the game. Certainly there is a narrowness of outlook.

Hard to convince

When the most recent outrage occurred in Lahore it was hard to convince the Australians that that was one street in one suburb of one city of one province.

Dramatic incidents in hotspots are flashed across the world in an instant. Bombs may explode in a quiet backwater, dacoits may pillage and little notice is taken.

But Pakistan is in the public eye, and 600 people have been killed in explosions. On this occasion the Australians had a point. Their own government had issued numerous warnings to casual visitors let alone representatives of the nation.

It is the suddenness of shells that scares people. Apparently 21,000 murders took place in South Africa in 2005 but no one seems worried about playing cricket there. Cars cause more casualties than bombs but that, too, is absorbed.

Frightening scenario

Explosions have a peculiar capacity to frighten.

The terrorists have chosen their weapon well.Plainly the Australians were unimpressed by reassurances about security, observing that Mrs Bhutto was also closely guarded. Geoff Lawson reminded his fellow countrymen that other teams had toured recently and emerged unscathed but it was a lost cause. He observed that only military targets have been attacked. But Australia is an enemy in some eyes. And he is not representing a nation fighting in Afghanistan.

Not much of a tour

Truth to tell, it would not have been much of a tour anyhow. Already the trip had been curtailed, with two Test matches and 5 ODIs replacing the full programme. Every player was to be given a personal guard and asked to remain inside admittedly luxurious hotels. Every spectator was to be searched umpteen times. It is not much of a way to play sport.

Presumably the Indians and Sri lankans will be happy to visit their neighbours. It is not so much that the players are braver.

They are more familiar with the terrain. The true test will come with the Champions Trophy in September. Let us pray that it takes place as intended.

Cricket can ill-afford to offend or isolate one of its strongest nations. But every game is these days at the mercy of forces far beyond its control.

It is profoundly sad, and proponents of diversity feel they have suffered another devastating blow.

But it is also the modern world.

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