For a second time, a cricket match, an ODI, failed to find meaning, rocked by incidents few could have foreseen.
It happened the last time when India were playing England in Cuttack in the fifth one day international of a seven match series. While the match was reaching a predictable conclusion, news reports of Mumbai being laid siege under a terror attack drastically shifted focus.
That cricket, even sport, could prove a distraction did not make sense. There was a real sense of danger, of lives at stake and to even the most ardent fan, suddenly cricket lost its meaning, much like every thing else other than what was happening.
Once again India are locked miles away in a battle against New Zealand in the first ODI in Napier. Yet it appeared like a friendly compared to the horrific attack that Sri Lankan cricketers were witness to early in the morning far away in Pakistan.
As the rain afflicted match goes on, predictably eyes on the television screen are glued more to the breaking news on television screens here in India rather than the match on progress. This is one time even the cricketers in far away countries will forgive their fans for not being behind their team because they themselves are rocked by the events that unfolded on this Black Tuesday in Pakistan.
