'They threw grenades, fired rocket launcher:' Sangakkara recalls attack on SL team in Pak

Former Sri Lanka cricketer Kumar Sangakkara recently recalled the attack on the team bus back in 2009 in Lahore when the team was touring Pakistan for a Test series. The terrorist attack took place when the Lankans were on their way to play the third day of the second test at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore. Six members of the Sri Lankan team were wounded while six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed in the attack. 

'I wish a bomb goes off..'

Recalling the incident in an interview with Sky Sports Cricket, the former skipper of the Lankans, Sangakkara said that the team had apprised officials back home of security concerns, however, they had assured the team of necessary groundwork to ensure security in Pakistan. He remembered that as the team was on the bus and they were talking about what they were going to do in the evening when one of the fast bowlers highlighted the flat wicket in Lahore which might cause him a stress fracture and he wished for a bomb to go off so that the team could go home and coincidentally, 20 seconds later, the attack happened. 

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Sangakkara stated that it was the team masseur, who was in front, alerted the team by shouting, 'get down, they are shooting the bus.' The veteran wicket-keeper batsman recalled 'all hell broke loose' and the players hid at the aisle of the bus on top of each other, adding that the terrorists shot at the bus as many times they could, threw grenades and fired a rocket launcher, yet for some reason, the team survived. 

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Furthermore, Sangakkara stated that Thilan Samaraweera and Ajantha Mendis were injured while he was hit on the shoulder with a lot of shrapnel and Tharanga Paranavitana was hit by a bullet and was bleeding from his chest. He added that most of the security personnel guarding the team had died. He added that the bus driver was the 'hero' since the terrorists tried to shoot him but missed by a couple of inches and drove the team past. 

Following the attack on the Sri Lankan team, almost all cricketing nations had refused to tour Pakistan citing security reasons. Owing to which, no international matches were played in the country forcing Pakistan to play home matches at Sharjah. Until 2019, when Sri Lanka decided to tour the country again after which the Pakistan Cricket Board extended invitations to other countries to visit as well. 

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