This being a sports Blog I chose not to give this story any mileage when it first took place what changed my mind was Sri Lankan cricket captain Mahela Jayawardena's entry in his tour diary. The tour diary can be found on his official website located here. Mahela talks of Sri Lanka's first cricket tour to Canada."The one sour note in the trip was when the tour bus was stopped by LTTE protesters and eggs and stones were thrown at us," writes Mahela on the tour diary.
"We are sportsman and we dont want to get involved in politics. We tried to just forget about it, but it was a bit upsetting," he added.
Mahela is right. Sportsman are not responsible for politics or the actions of their government. Team Sri lanka represents all Sri lankans regardless of caste, creed, race or religion. Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan an ethnic Tamil is a Sri Lankan sporting icon and is considered a national hero by all.
This is not the first time that international sportsman have been targeted by extremists. How could one forget the Munich massacre back in 1972? Members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization. This incident in King City, Ontario however is a first on Canadian soil - where an international sports team was attacked due to the lack of security provided by the Canadian police and the event organisers. As the story goes the team manager Nishantha Ranatunga called police for assistance from within the tour bus.
At the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground Sri Lankans of all ethnic backgrounds including many moderate Tamils celebrated Sri Lanka's victory. Alas, it only took the deeds of a few to put all of Canada to shame.
by Hilal
4 Comments:
I am a Tamil and living in Canada. I am very embarrassed and ashamed. The people who did this were Tamils creating a bad name for all Tamils and we already have such a bad image.
This is below the belt stuff. You can have a any political view but behaving like that is really shame.
If your wondering what really happened. The Sri Lankan cricket team was in Toronto for a cricket tournament which also featured Canada, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. Sri Lanka are the 1996 Worlc Cup champions in Cricket and one of the best teams in the world. Tamil Tiger supporters plagued the event with protests. A plane flew over the venue with a Tamil Tiger propaganda banner. Finally the team bus was stopped and attacked with stones and eggs.
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