Sri Lanka’s first double centurion, Brendon Kuruppu made a major revelation regarding the disastrous tour to Pakistan in 2009 on a recent Interview given to ThePapare.com’s Legends segment.
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The series ended abruptly as the tourists were attacked by terrorists and many were wounded in Lahore.
Sri Lanka team manager at the time, Kuruppu revealed, “Initially it was supposed to be a series between India and Pakistan but due to intel which was provided by RAW (Indian Intellegence), India had withdrawn from the tour. Considering the political relationship, the administrations decided to send our team to Pakistan”,
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However, to this day, the 58-year-old is unconvinced about the manner the Sri Lanka tour was organized in 2009. He also mentioned that he doubts that the officials conducted a proper security check prior to the series.
The Sri Lanka team had been given high security protection in Karachi, however, when the team arrived at the Karachi airport to take flight to Lahore, they had to have a change of plans.
The team departure to Lahore was delayed by 4 to 5 hours due to unrest in Lahore. There had been a political conflict in Lahore where the Governor had sacked the Prime Minister and taken over the power. As a result, many of the high security personnel in Lahore had been transferred.
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After the attack, Kuruppu had heard many disturbing rumours that also led to more suspicions about the attack. “Later on, I was told that the IGP in charge of our security was changed as well. The security on the roads were not conducted like it used to as the by-roads weren’t blocked by the police and vehicles had been permitted on the main road when we were traveling. We also weren’t given the Commando soldiers for security, we only got a few policemen. If India had come, they would have definitely got commando soldiers for their security”, he added.
According to Kuruppu, there had been several suspicious incidents on the day of the attack. “Normally, the two teams and the match officials always go together and we always leave on time. But on that day, a few Pakistani players weren’t ready to go, which was odd. So, our team bus and the officials’ bus left on time and the Pakistan team bus stayed back”, he stated.
On 3 March 2009, the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricketers, which was on its way for the 3rd day’s play of the second Test against Pakistan, was fired upon by 12 gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Six members of the Sri Lanka national cricket team were wounded and six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed. The committee appointed to investigate the attack found three Superintendents of Police (SPs) to have neglected the initial warning by Intelligence agencies. The Chief Minister of Punjab had also tipped off the authorities about a possible threat to the Sri Lankan team a month before.
Even after such a lucky escape, the Sri Lankan team was the first to arrive in Pakistan to play Test cricket after a decade of cricketing silence in the country in December 2019. When Kuruppu was asked whether he was willing to travel to Pakistan again if he got the chance, there was no hesitation in him saying yes, “I toured Pakistan with the U23 team which I captained. There are a few fond memories in Pakistan. So, definitely, I would go there again “
