How safe is safe in the world of sport ?
|16:27 UK time, Thursday, 25 February 2010
Chatting to Brett Lee this week - in the aftermath of his decision to retire from test cricket - really brought home how difficult it must be for a sportsman to decide whether to travel to an event which has been threatened with a militant attack.
His three year old son cropped up in conversation, and I know from personal experience how tough it can be to kiss your children goodbye when you are working abroad. They make you think differently about the life you lead, so it can't be easy to make a clear and rational choice about whether to play in an event like the Indian Premier League in the light of recent threats by a militant group based in Pakistan.
I'm sure most of us would encourage them to play - to stand up to the threat - yet recent attacks in India, on Sri Lanka's cricketers in Lahore, and on Togo's footballers in Angola, will be fresh in players' minds.
Re-locating events
It would be a terrible blow to India if events like the IPL, the Commonwealth Games and the World Cup are significantly weakened by player withdrawals, or worse still, have to be moved to other countries. South Africa did a great job hosting last year's IPL at short notice, but the tournament belongs in the country of its birth. How cruel it would be if Sachin Tendulkar were denied a final chance to win the World Cup on home soil, or India deprived of a chance to finally host the Commonwealth Games. The worry is that if many big stars pull out of the IPL - and the player's unions of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England plan to decide their strategy together - there could be repercussions for the events to follow.
Is anywhere really fully secure ?
The irony is that very few major cities can be considered risk-free - as the organisers of the London Olympics know only too well. And we must keep broadening our horizons. South Africa's World Cup will be a thrill - as will the excursion into Brazil for their World Cup and Olympic double bill. I loved Sydney's Millennium Olympics, but thank goodness the idea that the city act as a permanent host to the Olympic movement remained purely a subject for the radio talk shows.
What would you do if you were a player? Or if you were responsible for running events like the IPL and the Commonwealth Games? We'll discuss this on Saturday's Sportsworld from 14 hours GMT - and play you the Brett Lee interview - before Your Have Your Say from 1730 GMT.
Comment number 1.
At 17:14 25th Feb 2010, Tanimu Umar wrote:If the alarming insecurity in South Africa is taken as a factor for awarding hosting rights of major sports tournaments, few countries, especially in Africa and Southern America, will be allowed to host such tournaments. But I believe every kind of insecurity can be tackled with the proper personnel and machineries.
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Comment number 2.
At 06:50 27th Feb 2010, adamu sani wrote:well rusell, no where would be safe in the world of if we keep on being afraid, they will win.
anyway, as an arsenal fan i just recieved a great news that we posted a pre-tax profit of 35million pounds and our stadium debt has reduced to jus 203million. we are not united or liverpool thet are owing a combine debt of 1billion pounds neither are we porthsmouth or westham that is on the brink of administration. this is wenger's trophy for arsenal better the united winning the title last season 'cos we are safe, the safest in the league and so the best.
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Comment number 3.
At 18:23 4th Mar 2010, Dennice Vadim Luyimbaazi wrote:I don't know about anywhere but I know that South Africa 2010 will sure be safe.
There has been a lot to learn from eg the attacks in Lahore and Cabinda. Much as they hurt their hosts very much, they served as a lesson to SA and other future organisers of big events around the world about what can go wrong regardless of where you are.
I think insecurity can be anywere and every where so all organisers ave to do do is take care and make the mistakes of ACN organisers of using Cabinda.
As it is, even the playing pitches are no longer safe given what happened to Ramsey(although I'm very sure Shawcross didn't intend it to come out that way).
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