TIMELINE-Cricket teams and South Asia militant attacks
03 Mar 2009 07:18:59 GMT Source: Reuters
(For related story see [ID:nSP503498] and a round-up of stories on the attacks see [ID:nSP478024]) March 3 (Reuters) - Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their British assistant coach were wounded and five police were killed when gunmen attacked the team's bus as it drove to a stadium in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday. The following are other incidents in which visiting cricket teams have been caught up in or affected by militancy in South Asian countries. * LAHORE: March 3, 2009 -- Five police are killed and six members of Sri Lanka's national cricket team and their British assistant coach are wounded when a dozen gunmen attack the team's tour bus as it drives to a stadium in the city of Lahore in eastern Pakistan. * MUMBAI: November 26, 2008 -- The English cricket team fly home from India on Nov. 28, after militants storm the Indian financial capital, Mumbai, and kill about 170 people in a series of attacks. The gunmen hit high-profile targets including the Taj Mahal hotel, where the team normally stays. * NEW DELHI: September 13, 2008 -- Cricket Australia decides to go ahead with an India tour days after five bombs are detonated in and around crowded markets and streets in the Indian capital New Delhi on Sept. 13. -- Twenty people are killed and more than 90 injured in the blasts a week before the Australian cricketers are due to arrive. * LAHORE: March 11, 2008 -- The Australian cricket team postpones a tour to Pakistan hours after bombings in Lahore kill at least 15 people after taking independent security advice about the situation.* KARACHI: May 8, 2002 -- The New Zealand cricket team flies home from Pakistan after a suspected suicide bomber kills 14 people outside the Karachi hotel they are staying in. -- The blast, on the day the second test in a series was to have begun, injures the team physiotherapist and kills 11 French navy experts, two Pakistanis and the suicide bomber. * COLOMBO: July 24, 2001 -- A New Zealand cricket tour coincides with a suicide attack by Tamil Tigers that closes Colombo's international airport. -- At least 14 people are killed and 12 more wounded in the pre-dawn attack. The New Zealand team plays a match the following day under increased security.* COLOMBO: February 11, 1996 -- Cricket teams from Australia and the West Indies refuse to play preliminary World Cup matches in Sri Lanka a week after a massive Colombo bomb blast kills 80 people and injures 1,200. * COLOMBO: November 16, 1992 -- A bomb attack by a suicide Tamil rebel motorcycle rider kills four people outside the hotel that the New Zealand cricket team are staying in as the players are having breakfast. Five players and the team's coach are allowed to return home on "compassionate grounds". * COLOMBO: April 21, 1987 -- A car bomb kills more than 100 people at a bus station in the Sri Lankan capital while the New Zealand cricket team are visiting. The three-test tour is cut to one. Source: Reuters (Writing by Gillian Murdoch; Editing by John Chalmers)
Indian Bollywood star Preity Zinta speaks to the media about the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan, during the first of five one-day cricket matches between India and ...
