Umpires question security measures, voice anger

SYDNEY Australian cricket umpire Steve Davis slammed Pakistan on Thursday for failing to protect him and other officials who came under fire during the attack earlier this week on Sri Lanka’s cricket team. The comments by Davis came one day after match referee Chris Broad said Pakistan had not provided adequate protection for the team and the officials in Lahore. ‘There’s a bit of anger there that we were let down – we had all sorts of assurances before and I’m sure the (Sri Lankan) team feels that way too,’ Davis told reporters at Melbourne airport. ‘Despite all that, this was still able to happen and we were put in a very vulnerable position and felt very helpless.’ Davis and other match officials were travelling in a convoy towards the Gaddafi Stadium. Davis said he realised quickly just how serious the attack was when the bus driver was shot dead. ‘The driver’s foot was lodged on the accelerator and it was revving at a million miles an hour,’ he said. ‘Eventually a police officer came from somewhere, dragged the driver’s body out, and drove us at top speed to the stadium.’ Australian umpire Simon Taufel, who was also caught up in the shoot-out, said he did not know how the security detail had failed, but that he felt let down by Pakistan’s efforts. ‘We were promised a nine (out of ten security) and got delivered a two,’ Taufel said upon his arrival home Thursday. ‘The gunfire ... it just kept going. We thought, when’s it going to stop? Who’s going to come and save us, how are we going to get out of here?’ Taufel said, adding he found it ‘amazing’ that none of the gunmen had been caught. ‘You tell me why supposedly 20 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again, we were left on our own? I don’t have any answers to these questions.’ Davis said he needed time to think through his shattering experience. ‘I try to think what my feelings were and I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I think I’m still numb. I’m fully expecting to crash at some stage but not in front of you people, I hope.’ ‘I don’t know – anger, amazement, how could this happen? I don’t know.’ Taufel, 38, said he was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he survived the attack. ‘On Tuesday morning we were caught in a war ... It’s just a bloody game of cricket, not a war. It’s not the way the way life should be or sport should be,’ he said. ‘Sometimes if we have a bad day out on the field and perhaps we (umpires) don’t get everything right, at least we say nobody’s died.’ ‘Well, on Tuesday, people died and I can’t explain why I’m here. There is no reason for us to still be here.’