A sad day for cricket....

Nothing unites South Asia like Cricket. The supreme religion of the sub-continent, it unites people across all borders, whether they are Hindus or Muslims, male or female, rich or poor. The yells and screams (sometimes joyful, sometimes not!) that emanate from every apartment when India plays Pakistan are a testament to this passion that runs through our veins like blood. In such a region, cricket fans thrive when Indo-Pak relations do well and equally fans suffer when relations hit new lows.

However the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai were perhaps the first time when Indian fans unanimously declared that the Indian team must not travel to Pakistan to honour a series commitment. Pakistan, which had not seen any international cricket action on its soil for the last 14 months was desperate and into this void stepped in the Sri Lankan team to save the day for PCB. Whether this was done because SLCB was promised huge amounts of money or because the Sri Lankans are a courageous people who wanted to help out their "friend" Pakistan is inconsequential. The series went ahead and for a minute or two, international cricket paused to see if things were really getting better in Pakistan.

And then the tragedy of the Liberty Square happened. What Black September was to Athletics, Liberty Sqaure will be to Cricket. All innocence of this great sport was lost as the Sri Lankan team's bus was open fired on. Worse was to come. Six policemen sacrificed their lives and all 14 masked gunmen responsible for this travesty escaped unscathed. Cricket, hitherto thought of as so revered that no terrorist could attack it, was slowly stripped of that respect as every bullet pierced the air.

What now is the fate of cricket in this highly unstable country which declares itself to be in a state of war? Indeed, what now is the fate of cricket in this subcontinent? 26/11 in India, BDR mutiny in Bangladesh, LTTE war in Sri Lanka, SWAT valley deals in Pakistan and now this....can we blame any white cricketers when they refuse to tour South Asia? Can we protest if World Cup 2011 is taken away from us? No, we cannot.

One would like to witness an Indo-Pak match frenzy again. Frenzy on which generations on both sides of the border grew up. Painting faces, waiving flags of friendship......but unfortunately the yells and screams that one hears these days are of a different kind. Of terror, of divisiveness, of enmity......

Nevertheless, the human spirit is unrelenting and just as it has risen like a phoenix from the flames of various tragedies in the past, so it shall rise again. This great sport, this great unifier will return once more to its glory in the region. And once more India and Pakistan, through healthy competition will entertain massess across the world, win World Cups and bring home (the sub-continent) the glory that our talented teams and our passionate people deserve.

Inspite of this optimism we must not forget that today's incident has tarnished the image of this great sport in our much divided sub-continent. For by remembering the mistakes of our past and learning from them, can we build our future. Sport in the region will always bear this black mark from this day on and all genuine cricket fans, for whom their love for this sport transcends religion and borders will always mourn this day when their most loved and respected shrine was defiled. Let us hope, for the first and the last time.