Lahore terrorist attack still haunts Jayawardene, Samaraweera
Mahela Jayawardene will aim to cross the 10,000-run mark in Tests during England series © Getty Images
London: May 24, 2011
The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus on March 2009 in Lahore still haunts the then captain Mahela Jayawardene, who says he still gets the “flashbacks” of the nerve wracking incident. The attack on the Lankan team on March 3, 2009 claimed six lives, including that of the bus driver and left seven cricketers besides the assistant coach injured.
“I still get flashbacks,” Jayawardene told The Guardian.
“At first, the guys were saying, ‘Why would anyone let off crackers at eight in the morning?’ But then someone shouted: ‘No, they’re shooting at us — get down’,” recalled Jayawardene while citing the proceedings of that day when a dozen masked gunmen attacked the team bus on the way to the Gaddafi Stadium on the third day of the second Test match.
The 32-year-old, however, feels that they were very lucky to have survived the attack. “Lying on the floor, I thought, ‘There is no way we’re going to get through this.’ There was no talking — just screaming and shouting. Whenever anyone got hit by shrapnel they would scream. We were very, very lucky to be alive at the end of it,” he reveals.
Meanwhile, speaking about the recent loss to India in the World Cup final at Mumbai, which saw the stylish right-hander score a scintillating ton to guide his team to a competitive total, Jayawardene said M S Dhoni-led team deserved to win.
“275 in a World Cup final is a good score and when we had them 30-2 I was hopeful. But India deserved to win,” he said. “Even if I would have preferred to win, I was happy with my batting. When you consider the occasion and the situation we were in, it was good,” he added.
The Sri Lankan cricket team, which has lost a bit of its sheen in the wake of subsequent retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga from Test cricket, awaits a tough task when they take on a resurgent England side in an away series under a new captain in Tillakaratne Dilshan.
“It’s a challenging time — especially as we won’t have a genius bowling from one end. We’ll need a different mentality to win games without Murali, and it’s going to be much tougher,” he said. He, however, remains optimistic. “Dilshan’s very street-smart and he’ll do well as captain. It’s not a bad situation.”
Having scored 9,527 Test runs, Jayawardene is aiming to reach the 10k mark. “Let’s hope the 10,000 mark comes against England. I set this target three years ago and once I make it I’ll decide what’s next. But there will be another target because that keeps the hunger going. You’ve always got to challenge yourself — because you never know what might happen next.”
On the recent allegations of match-fixing levelled by former Sri Lanka Test cricketer Hashan Tillakaratne, the batsman said, “I think it’s hot air. If he’s got evidence it’s great because we can’t have this in our cricket. But we need solid proof. He’s had enough time to speak to the ICC and he’s not gone about it in the right manner.”
Senior batsman Thilan Samaraweera has said that the terror attack on the team in Lahore in 2009 still haunts him. “It was the worst day of my life. Those three minutes in the bus will stay with me forever. But it’s all in the past now and thankfully I am here to tell the tale,” Samaraweera told the Pakpassion.net website.
When the militants attacked the Sri Lankan team bus while they were going to the Gaddafi stadium on the third day of the second Test match on March 3, Samaraweera was the only player who suffered a bullet wound while some of his teammates suffered wounds from flying glass.
He had a bullet pierce the inside of his thigh, centimetres from the knee but he was back playing for Sri Lanka four months after the attack. “It was a challenge to play after the attack and the injury, but I wanted desperately to start playing again. I was back playing again for Sri Lanka after four months. When I was lying in the hospital bed recovering from the injury I never thought I would be able to make such a swift recovery.”
In the aftermath of the Lahore attack, the Sri Lankan players won much praise from the cricketing world for the dignified way they conducted themselves. Rather than pointing fingers, the Sri Lankan players and officials maintained a professional and respectful viewpoint.
“We have had 30 years of internal problems in Sri Lanka, we are used to that. In schools and other educational establishments we are taught how to react in such situations and that helped us all that day in Lahore,” he said.
Samaraweera feels that it was a “lucky” bullet as it did not hit either the bone or a nerve, which could turn out to be far more serious and potentially career threatening.
“I have kept the bullet, it’s at home. I feel that it’s a lucky bullet as if it had hit the bone I would never have played cricket again and if it had hit a nerve then the doctors said that I would have been paralysed. So for me, the fact that it neither hit the bone nor a nerve means that the bullet was lucky,” he said.
The 34-year old batsman also made it clear he had no intentions of retiring at least for the next two years. “This year we have eleven Test matches, which is a lot of cricket coming up. Next year we also have eleven Test matches scheduled. So I am focussing more on Test cricket. I feel I can go on for at least the next two years and after that I hope for the best.”
Samaraweera made his Test debut against India in 2001 and scored 102 not out on debut. A veteran of 63 Tests, his average of 54.25 is boosted by two double hundreds against Pakistan and 12 centuries in total. He is now looking forward to the challenge of beating England on their own soil.