By IANS,
Colombo : Sri Lankan cricket players and officials may be fast recovering physically and psychologically after the March 3 Lahore terror attack, but the island’s cricket governing body has not paid compensation to them yet, a media report said here Sunday.
Describing that it was “only a miracle of providence” that the players and officials escaped when a terror group ambushed them in a foreign country they were touring as ambassadors of goodwill, the report said Sri Lanka Cricket’s inability to pay compensation “shows a gaping hole”.
A team of 12 terrorist sprayed bullets and fired rocket propelled grenades at the convoy carrying Sri Lankan players to the Lahore Gaddafi international stadium to play the third day of the second and last Test against hosts Pakistan March 3.
Seven players and the team’s assistant coach were injured and six Pakistani police officials providing protection to the bus carrying the players were killed in the incident that shook the entire cricketing world.
“While all their immediate medical needs have been attended to, still importantly, the vacuum left by the cricket board in this respect is an indictment of Sri Lanka Cricket itself,” the state-run Sunday Observer said.
“The inability of the SLC (Sri Lanka Cricket) to compensate the national cricketers and official who were subject to the Lahore terrorist attack a fortnight ago by insurance cover for shock and trauma raises serious questions as to the bona fide of SLC,” it said.
Claiming that this was “the candid opinion of a cross section of insurance people”, the report said that it was a “blatant negligence” on the part of the SLC, which last week got a new interim body after a three-month gap.
“Sixty percent of success of a cricketer depends on mental concentration, and in a situation like this, players not being covered by insurance of this nature is a very serious lapse (of the SLC),” the state-run media report said.