Sydney, Mar.10 (ANI): Sri Lanka cricket team coach Trevor Bayliss claimed on Tuesday that security was less than it had been on previous occasions in Pakistan.
It was certainly less than when were there for the Asia Cup in July the year before and when we there for the one-day series only a month before (the attack) and probably different between Lahore (second Test) and (the first Test in) Karachi,”” Fox Sports quoted an angry Bayliss, as saying.
In Karachi we had the small trucks out the front and some behind but we also had a truck either side of us with guys standing up through the roof with a fixed machine gun on either side. That wasn”t there in Lahore, he added.
Bayliss returned to Australia after he was caught up in the attack on the Sri Lankan team bus last week in which eight people were killed and six of his players injured.
Bayliss has backed claims from Australian umpires Steve Davis and Simon Taufel, and English match referee Chris Broad, that the security arrangements were inadequate. He also has questioned the process for obtaining security advice on the subcontinent.
Here in Australia they would get independent security advice. The advice over there was I think the two governments speaking together,”” he said.
Asked if he was angry about the situation, he said: I suppose yes but there’’s nothing I can do about it now.””
Bayliss also sounded a warning for sports people and organisers involved with events on the subcontinent, including he 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games.
There’’s some big questions to be asked by the governing bodies of all the sports, not just cricket,”” he said.
He said most of the Sri Lankan players he had spoken to still planned to be a part of the Indian Premier League tournament, which was postponed until April and May following the deadly attacks in Mumbai last November. (ANI)