Sri Lanka coach agrees security not up to standard

The coach of the Sri Lankan cricket team that was targeted in a deadly ambush by terrorists in Pakistan last week has backed claims by beleaguered match officials that security was inadequate in Lahore.

Trevor Bayliss, an Australian who is head coach at Sri Lanka, also warned organizers of major events on the Indian subcontinent, including the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, that no sport is safe from extremists.

At a news conference here Tuesday, Bayliss supported English match referee Chris Broad and Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis, who said they were like "sitting ducks" in the attack by more than a dozen gunmen near a stadium last week.

International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat tried to play down comments by the officials who were appointed by the world government body for Sri Lanka's series in Pakistan, saying Broad needed to be "more rational" when discussing the attack. Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butt went further, accusing Broad of fabricating what happened in the attacks.

Six police officers and the driver of a van that was carrying Broad and the two umpires in a convoy with the Sri Lankan bus were killed in the attacks. Seven Sri Lankan players, an assistant coach and a match official were injured. None of the attackers has been arrested.

Broad and Taufel made angry claims in the wake of the attacks that their van was deserted by security when the Sri Lankan team bus was able to drive through the ambush and make it to the stadium.

"They told the truth as they saw it," Bayliss told the Sydney news conference. "There's probably a big difference between some of the comments that have been made between some of the people that weren't in that convoy to the ones sitting in the bus.

"In hindsight there just wasn't enough security and ... even the police chief and the security people have actually said there was a lack of security."

Bayliss said security for the Lahore match was a lot less intense than it had been for the test at Karachi the previous week, and for a limited-overs tournament in Pakistan in January and the Asian Cup last July.

"In Karachi we had the small trucks out the front and some behind but we also had a truck either side of us with guys standing up through the roof with a fixed machine gun on either side," Bayliss said. "That wasn't there in Lahore."

Bayliss, a former first-class player and coach in Australia who replaced fellow Australian Tom Moody as Sri Lanka coach in 2007, said the process for getting security reports needed to be overhauled on the subcontinent, including more advice from independent experts.

"There's some big questions to be asked by the governing bodies of all the sports, not just cricket," he said. "I think this proves if cricket, which is the No. 1 sport on the subcontinent, can get hit then any sport can get hit and especially any big sporting tournaments or the Commonwealth Games."

Bayliss said he didn't want international cricket to die off in Pakistan, but wasn't in a hurry to go back himself.

Asked what would convince him to return, he said: "Maybe about 10 other tours there by other teams."

He also urged organizers of the Indian Premier League, scheduled to start next month, to look carefully at security following the Lahore attack and the Mumbai shootings last November that claimed 164 lives in India's financial hub.

He said most of the Sri Lankan players he'd canvassed still planned to play in the lucrative Twenty20 league.

"That's more of an individual choice," he said. "I think the Sri Lankan players, most of them if they're fit, will go.

"I think that most of them are fairly keen that cricket must continue and that terrorism can't stop sport and they should show a united front.

"When it comes to the crunch though, when your life's on the line, it might be a different story."