Insight By Sunil Kumar For LankaWeb

June 19th 2009
The warnings and doomsday predictions by Ananda de Costa for Sunday’s T 20 Cricket Final at the Mecca of Cricket~ Lords in London England although sounding somewhat of an unmitigated paranoia does have some rhyme and reason.It also carries a profound message which cannot go unheeded! They most certainly cross reference the horrendous attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore Pakistan and prior to that, the less aggressive demonstrations at King City, Ontario, Canada. Although the Lahore attack did not have fatal ramifications for the players mercifully, despite perhaps the trauma of it all where the alertness of the bus driver who drove the bus through a hail of bullets and rocket fire to safety probably saved their lives it did raise the question about player safety in a world full of terrorists.

Somehow and perhaps at a time when the world was less turbulent such incidents targetting sports events albeit not uncommon going back to the Munich Olympics were never considered a serious threat although the world has now lived to learn. It also exposed the lax security measure of the Pakistani Authorities and woe be unto the Authorities concerned in the forthcoming event if such lapses ever re-surfaced as the reprisals could permanently damage the image of English Cricket!

Hence the cautions pointed out by Mr Costa indeed need to be taken seriously by the British Authorities for all the reasons he has outlined and more as the UK still remains a safe haven for many dispossessed supporters of the Tamil Tigers (the LTTE )who have in the recent past created much havoc already for local Sri Lankan residents in various parts of the country, something which has also spilled out globally so this is no idle call by Mr de Costa by any stretch of the imagination!

These individuals who are groups of LTTE supportives, it has to be remembered by British Law Enforcement are still agitating and threatening revenge and vengeance against the Government of Sri Lanka’s elimination of the Tamils Tigers. These are pockets of residual diaspora LTTE supportives who still pose a threat to civilised societies around the world and perhaps the forthcoming Cricket Final At Lords on Sunday the 21st June 2009 could be one of the biggest challenges the British Authorities face
towards protecting the cricketers and taking all the preventive measures needed towards the safety of everyone concerned which includes the general public as well as the players.
London surely remembers the many attacks against innocent civilians as well as Law Enforcement personnel in the not too diatant past towards this!!

While there seems to be no real need to abandon the game as called for by Mr de Costa there definitely has to be very tight security cordon for the game which the British Authorities are quite adept at providing despite the possible threats posed by a large pro Tamil Tiger Lobby in the UK, are still criminal minded individuals by definition and need to be kicked out of the country towards British posterity!