After the dust settles ...

Last Thursday saw one of the more spectacular terrorist atrocities of recent years, when armed groups attacked several locations in Mumbai, India.

Let's take a moment to remember the at least 188 dead as a result of the attacks.



The dust seems to be settling now, with the aftershocks and repercussions starting to be felt. This has the potential to be an extremely scary event as it's putting a red hot poker into the sensitive relations between India and Pakistan, 2 countries armed with nukes ... There's a thread left by the terrorists that could allow an excuse for increasing the tension between India and Pakistan and I really do hope sanity prevails here.

There's a potential for the guns of 20 to turn into 2 million, if the two governments allow the terrorists to decide their foreign policy for them. Hopefully sanity will prevail. I'm more interested in the cultural aspect, in particular what happens with the sport :-)

India should be hosting a cricket Champions League at the moment, which was rightfully called off. If the terrorists had struck just a day or two later, they'd have caught some of the teams taking part. A week or so earlier and the England international team would have been staying in one of the hotels that was attacked. With so many dead, it was the right thing to do to call off the Champions League, this should be a time for mourning.

I was thinking that it would be wrong for the England team to go back to India to play a couple of Test Matches here. Same logic again, time for mourning. The big concern is over the safety of the players, which should really be expanded to looking out for the safety of the media covering the games and the supporters going out to watch them. I'm starting to come around to a different point of view though, dominated by the thought :

Why should we allow terrorists to tell us what to do ?

A period of mourning was needed but those times should ALWAYS come to an end. The dead should be remembered but it's key to remember to live life. What better time to turn the corner and say to the world : "We Are Not Afraid !" and get the game on. I really do hope that England do go out there and show what they've got. I'm sure they'll be well looked after, although the atmosphere could be somewhat of a prison camp with the level of security they'll have. Which could be a good thing, as it'll hopefully focus the players on playing the game.

We'll see what happens over the next week or so. It's still up in the air as to whether England's cricket team goes back to India and a few players will probably avoid the tour. That's their choice. (Should note that one who I'm a big fan of probably won't go - but that's cos his wife has a kiddie due very soon)