Pak Cricket: Broad angry at security failures

Page last updated at 13:35 GMT, Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Broad angry at security failures:

Advertisement Broad 'angry' over lack of security Chris Broad has angrily criticised security in Pakistan after being caught up in Tuesday's Lahore terror attack. The former England batsman was match referee for the Pakistan-Sri Lanka third Test and was in a van with other officials when they came under fire. Six policeman and a driver were killed and seven Sri Lanka players were hurt. "I am extremely angry that we were promised high-level security and in our hour of need that security vanished," said the ICC official. He said the officials were left like "sitting ducks" after the security forces ran for cover when the attack happened close to the Gaddafi Stadium. I had an inkling before the Test match leg of the tour that something might happen Chris Broad The driver of Broad's vehicle was killed in the attack and local umpire Ahshan Raza was seriously injured after being shot. With everyone on the van floor to try to avoid bullets, Broad lay on top of his colleague to protect him. Broad, speaking in Manchester after his flight home, said: "I'm not a hero. Ahsan Raza took a bullet to the stomach or chest - somewhere in the spleen and lung region. "I was lying behind him on the floor of the van and there were bullets flying all around us. "I only noticed he was injured when I saw a large pool of blood had spilled on to the floor and out of the partially opened van door. "He's just an umpire who loves the game." Six of them [policemen] died, nine of them are seriously injured in hospital and he [Broad] says there were no policeman Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt Broad, 51, believed it would be very difficult for international cricket to be played in Pakistan in "the foreseeable future" and he called the attacks "the death knell of cricket in Pakistan". "I think this has shocked the world of cricket," he said. "I hope this has made people sit up and think. In certain circumstances, things take a long time to change in cricket, but in this case things will have to happen fairly quickly." He also revealed he had raised security concerns ahead of the series but had been reassured by the Pakistan Cricket Board. "I had an inkling before the Test match leg of the tour that something might happen," Broad said. "I raised my concerns with the ICC before the tour started and they passed on those concerns to the Pakistan Cricket Board and they assured me through email that all security would be taken care of, presidential-style security. And clearly that didn't happen. Tributes are laid at the scene of the shootings in Lahore "When we were in the van we weren't aware of what was going on outside. But afterwards when you watch the TV pictures you can clearly see the white van we were in, in the middle of a roundabout and not a sign of a policeman anywhere." But Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt denied Broad's claims that the protection given to the players and officials was inadequate and said the casualty toll among the security forces proved that. "Six of them died, nine of them are seriously injured in hospital and he says there were no policeman," Butt told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Where does he come up with such comments? I'm seriously going to report this back to the ICC. This is not the way. There were other people also, all foreigners, not one single one of them was injured." Security on international tours is the responsibility of the two individual boards but Broad suggested the ICC, the game's governing body, should take a more direct role. "There are countries who have their own security experts," he said. "I know England have Reg Dickason from Australia and other countries use him and his group to look at security. "Reg Dickason didn't think Pakistan was safe for anyone to go to. He was amazed the Sri Lanka tour went ahead. "But he's not advising Sri Lanka - he's advising England. England clearly wouldn't have gone into the same situation. "Maybe there's something for the ICC to look at - that they themselves take the safety concerns into consideration, make decisions themselves about their match officials, the PCT. "Because, of course, no official game can go ahead without the playing control team. So if the ICC say don't go then it doesn't happen." Broad and the other uninjured officials were flown out of Pakistan three hours after the incident and headed to Dubai before returning home to the UK. He said he had not had any sleep because of the "images going through my mind". Broad had managed to contact his son Stuart, who is in the England squad touring the West Indies, and his daughter, who is with the England Women's squad in Australia. But he will speak to them again "just to reassure them that all things have gone well".