A formal announcement is yet to be made. But the writing is on the wall. England are going home and the IPL teams from Australia and South Africa scheduled to arrive today and in fact, well reported to be scheduled to stay at the Taj hotel will not be boarding the flight to Mumbai.
This may or may not have been the intended motive of the terrorists who struck Mumbai as it was beginning to wind down. But they have succeeded in undermining India’s security. The England, fresh after the drubbing they received in Cuttack last night when they were trashed 5-0, decided not to stick around as one of the favourtie cities for touring cricketers came under an intense, unprecedented attack from a ruthless bunch of individuals who decided to halt Mumbai dead in its tracks.
What started out as one believing to be a gang war turned into a large scale war, one that pitched the financial capital of the country caught between taking down the terrorists in a straight eye-for-an-eye battle and protecting the lives of innocent bystanders and those laid seige upon in the hotels that were the safe haven for foreigners.
Mumbai has often been the destination and departure port for touring cricket teams and it comes as little surprise that when Mumbai is attacked, no one feels safe, not even the tourists anymore. The blasts before in other cities failed to deter tourists entering the country via Mumbai. But all that will have changed after last night.
Only a day earlier, it was reported that the Indian cricket team was experiencing discomfort about the prospect of touring Pakistan for the tour earlier next year. Now with less than a day to go for the IPL teams from Australia and South Africa to come to Mumbai and stay at the Taj, India has been destabilized by this random but well thought out act of violence.
Even as the city is being laid seige upon even fifteen hours after the crisis first began, cricket may seem like a bit of a farce. But in reality, it is an indicator not only of the fact that these deviants have taken the full of the otherwise torn lives but also, that any city anywhere in the world could be made so vulnerable in a manner of minutes.
