Broad angry at Pakistani security forces
MANCHESTER: Cricket match referee Chris Broad has slammed the Pakistan security forces for providing insufficient protection after he and fellow officials came under fire during the terror attack in Lahore on Tuesday.
The van carrying Broad to the Gadaffi Stadium for the third Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka came under fire as gunmen aimed at the nearby Sri Lanka team bus.
Ex-England batsman Broad, who said he'd expressed concerns for his safety before the start of the tour, told a news conference here Wednesday: "I am angry at the Pakistani security forces.
"We were promised high level security and in our hour of need that security vanished and they left us to be sitting ducks."
He added: "I had an inkling before the Test match leg of the tour that something might happen. I certainly didn't think this was going to happen.
"I raised my concerns with the ICC (International Cricket Council) before the tour started and they passed on those concerns to the Pakistan Cricket Board and they assured me through e-mail that all security would be taken care of, presidential-style security. And clearly that didn't happen.
"When we were in the van we weren't aware of what was going on outside.
"But after the incident when you watch the TV pictures you can clearly see the white van we were in, next to the ambulance in the middle of a roundabout, with terrorists shooting into our van and past our van and not a sign of a policeman anywhere."
Broad, 51, has been praised for trying to protect severely injured local umpire Ahsan Raza after the fourth official had been shot in a van where the driver was killed by gunfire.
But former England opener Broad, clearly still shaken by events, stressed: "I am not a hero. Ahsan Raza took a bullet to the stomach or chest - somewhere in the spleen and lung region. I was lying behind him on the floor of the van and there were bullets flying all around us.
"I only noticed he was injured when I saw a large pool of blood had spilled on to the floor and out of the partially opened van door.
"He's just an umpire who loves the game."
Tuesday's attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus -- which left six police and two civilians dead with seven players and an assistant coach sustaining injuries - have cast serious doubts over the future of international cricket in the cricket-mad nation.
Sri Lanka's tour was immediately abandoned and New Zealand subsequently indicated it would call off its November tour of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the ICC has raised doubts over whether the country can still co-host the 2011 World Cup.
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Originally Posted by sheem
