Thursday 7 May 2009

Protecting the Sri Lankan team

The military comes to cricket.

Sri Lanka has appointed a retired army general Major General Lawrence Fernando to act as security consultant for the team and protect the team during domestic and overseas tours. There's only one reason for this.

Sri Lanka Cricket said the appointment was due to:
"The global security threats and after the sequence of unfortunate incidents that the Sri Lankan team had to face (in Pakistan). His main concerns will be all aspects pertaining to security such as inbound, outbound tours, venues under Sri Lanka Cricket."

So, an ex-army official of the highest rank working to protect a cricket team. The attack in Lahore was the first major shake-up of this kind to world cricket, and it has undoubtedly changed certain international relations permanently. If we're having to bring in military servicemen to aid with the protection of cricketers, it seems likely that in the coming years we will see security bumped up further and further as perceived threats increase.

Perhaps life as a cricketer won't seem quite so appealing anymore in the near future.

4 comments:

12th Man said...

It would be a nice to idea to stack up your international team with army men. In that way, you don't have to spend on their security.

Amy said...

Yes, I do believe ROFL is part of some crack commando unit that regularly undertakes top secret operations.

And there's many theories about KP's real background too.

Ryan said...

The guy being posted is a retired Army general, and not a current member of the armed forces. So no, there won't be an armed escort for Sri Lanka. He has been appointed to over look security and point out any shortcomings to the cricket authorities of the hosting nation.

Amy said...

I'm not sure whether you're saying I think he's still in the army, because I don't. But yeah, that's exactly what he's there for.