Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said that while life for his side would not be the same after the attack on their team bus in Pakistan, it would not stop them from playing international cricket.
Sangakkara’s men have arrived in England for the ICC World Twenty20 after a particularly torrid few months.
In March, their bus was attacked with bullets and grenades in Lahore as they travelled to the Gadaffi Stadium for a Test against Pakistan in an incident that saw several players, including Sangakkara hurt, and eight Pakistanis killed.
PHOTO: AP
Their arrival in England was overshadowed by British newspaper reports of Sri Lankan government “war crimes” against the separatist Tamil Tigers, which may have led to the cancelation of a trip to the Oxford Union.
“It was funny getting back on a bus from the airport to go to hotel when we arrived in England,” Sangakkara explained to reporters on Sunday.
“After Lahore, we went through a terrible time but what we’ve realized is that life goes on,” he said. “We’ve got to play cricket, cricket for us means normalcy.”
Sangakkara stressed the role that cricket plays in his country’s culture.
“Cricket in Sri Lanka has been that one unifying force over the years,” he said. “It’s been the passion of the entire country, cricket transcends religion, race and politics.”
“I think that’s the greatest thing we represent. As a team we are representative of all the ethnicities and religions that are there in Sri Lanka and we get on fine,” Sangakkara said.
Sangakkara said there was a straightforward reason why the Oxford Union visit had been called off.
“Since then the Oxford arrangements were not made known to our security team well enough in advance that was why it was canceled,” he said.
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