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A helicopter on a cricket ground is a rarity, but it does get used by some cricket associations to dry up the wet outfields. What it definitely hasn’t been used so far has been for transporting the touring team to the airport to take them back to their country after been wounded in a terror attack! No, this was a definite first in cricket. In fact, this was just not cricket.Former English skipper, Michael Vaughan had made an interesting observation immediately the Mumbai terror attacks, after it had been revealed that he was one of the English cricketers residing in that very Taj Hotel a day earlier, which had been under siege. He said that every time a terror attack of the 26/11 kind occurs, he felt that the cricketers and cricket was getting that much closer to the action. Today, that boundary was crossed at Lahore. And with all due respects to former cricketing greats like Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, their prophecy that the cricketers are safe in Pakistan and that no-one can really attempt to harm them, has fallen as flat on its face as some of the batsmen would while facing these bowlers. The myth had been shattered.But it is not so much of a thrill to prove them wrong, as it is the sorrow and fear that this actual plot consisting of daring abductions, long-lasting face-offs with the men-in-charge and in all probabilities the killings that would have invariably followed, generates, that is rather chilling. It may or may not be through design, but the fact that none of the cricketers actually suffered from any serious harm is only incidental in the whole affair.What is worse though, is what will follow from the cricketing perspective. If it had taken fourteen months for a country to feature in a test match in Pakistan, one hopes that it does not take those many years for the next one. The same goes for the shorter versions of the game as well. In fact, one of my fears is that pakistan cricket may go the South African way as it had in 1969; boycotted by all cricketing countries, for obviously a totally different reason. However, this is not restricted to Pakistan alone. I am no political-guru, but the one thing for sure is that an unstable neighbour could cause further issues in india as well.The Indian Government has already raised concerns over the security during the ipl as it will coincide with the general elections in the country. And this may just cause the dilution of the security personnel across the two big events. Which is sad, given that cricket has never been played in such an atmosphere of hostility over sustained period of time before.The moving out of World Cup is a definite problem, but the other issue that could rise very soon is from the World Cup qualifiers that get played soon in south africa. The 12 teams which have reached that final stage of qualification include one of the best improved Affiliate country, Afghanistan! And if they do manage to get in the top four of that tournament, it would mean that the Afghans would be a part of the 2011 World Cup. Now, wouldn’t that be a very perplexing situation given the current scenario in that country?The show cannot go on. Not like this at least.