New Delhi: Cricket umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis are extermely critical of the role of the Pakistani security forces.
The duo has since returned home to Australia after their ordeal and both have lambasted the Pakistani security set up.
While the Australia team hasn't toured Pakistan since 1998, umpires from Down Under have had no such luxury.
Taufel as well as Steve Davis had no choice as ICC employees to make the trip but could've paid with their lives.
Simon Taufel said, “We were isolated, we were left alone, we were unaccounted for. We were not given the same security and the same attention as the playing staff was.”
Umpire Davis said, “There's a bit of anger there that we were let down. We had all sorts of assurances before and I'm sure the team feels that way too. They had some assurances too. And despite all that, all this still happened and we were put in a very vulnerable position and I felt very helpless.”
Even as they pray for their Pakistani colleague Ehsan Raza, who continues to fight with death in a Lahore hospital, their dismay, anger, sadness, shock and trauma refuses to die down.
“Not a sign of a policeman anywhere. They had clearly, gone and left the scene. They had left us to be sitting ducks,” said ICC match referee Chris Broad.
While Broad clearly is not holding his punches, there is no sympathy or apology emanating from the Pakistani authorities.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ejaz Butt said, “I am also lodging a formal protest with the ICC too, there is no shred of truth in the statements he has made.”
Six Sri Lankan cricketers, including Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana, were injured and eight people were killed after 12 masked gunmen attacked the bus that carried the team convoy to the Gaddafi stadium on Tuesday.
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