Coach recalls cricket team attack

Paul Farbrace joined the Sri Lankan team as assistant coach in 2007

The English cricket coach who survived a gun attack in Pakistan earlier this month has said he is still coming to terms with what happened.

Ex-Kent batsman Paul Farbrace was with the Sri Lanka team as assistant coach when gunmen attacked their bus.

He received a shrapnel wound to his right arm in the attack on 3 March.

Speaking from his home in Harrietsham, he said: "At the early stages [of the attack] we didn't even realise we were necessarily part of the main target."

Mr Farbrace told BBC South East Today he had only recently been able to look at the press coverage of the attack, in which seven Sri Lankan players were also injured and five policemen were killed.

'Waste of life'

The team bus was travelling under police escort to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore when it came under attack.

"I heard lots of theories and over the last week or so I've read as much as I possibly can, really to understand about what went on as much as possible," he said.

Despite his injuries, he is returning to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, and is adamant the events in Lahore will not deter him.

"To see some of the pictures of some of the people laying dead in the street an hour before a cricket match, which is what we were all there for, for me is just a complete and utter waste of life.

"But somehow, it's let me keep some sort of perspective on 'I'm so lucky and others around me were desperately unlucky'," he said.