No compensation:

Unlike cricket

Srian OBEYESEKERE

Still traumatised: Thilan Samaraweera,Mahela Jayawardene, Tharanga Paranavithana and Ajantha Mendis

They still carry the scars. As all Sri Lankan cricketers say, Lahore, March 3 escaping from the terrorist attack by crazed gunmen will be vivid in their memories; magnified by words uttered by skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Chaminda Vaas of the shock and relief of living to tell the tale; the team's immediate reactions in rewarding the brave Pakistani bus driver Mohammad Kalil; Muttiah Muralidaran removing the T-shirt he was wearing and presenting it to the driver.

To Vaas, despite the relief to be back with family and friends, that terrible experience would change their lives forever having had an enormous impact on his life.

They went to play cricket. They were representing their country. And they were performing as professionals for their country against Pakistan. And that Tuesday morning was another routine day; the morning of the third day's play of the second Test match between the two countries when the Sri Lanka team headed from their hotel not far away from the Gadaffi Stadium to get proceedings under way which was about half an hour away.

The Pakistani team did not drive off as usual at the same time as the Sri Lankans who were the first to do so. But the unexpected happened and all the players and match officials who came under attack escaped miraculously.

Players and officials alike were injured as they wriggled out of the jaws of death. Number 5 batsman Thilan Samaraweera suffered from a bullet wound in his thigh, debutant and opening batsman Tharanga Paranavithana from bullet in shoulder just above heart, off spinner Ajantha Mendis covered with head injuries, skipper Mahela Jayawardene, vice captain Kumar Sangakkara and Chaminda Vaas from shrapnel injuries and assistant coach Paul Farbrace from bleeding bullet injury to chest.

For the injured and the not so the stark horror of escaping a rocket launcher, hand grenade and gunfire the whole experience was nerve wracking; certainly far exceeding what they go through a cricket match. And in that horror filled incident in all some fourteen players and several more officials had undergone shock and trauma where their very lives hung from a thread; something that they, despite being large hearted cricketers, are grappling to get away from their minds.

In the aftermath of it all that the players and officials are not being compensated by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), the governing arm of the game here with it shows a gaping hole. As the players themselves marvel it was only a miracle of providence that they escaped. While all their immediate medical needs have been attended to, still importantly, the vacuum left by the cricket board in this respect is an indictment of SLC itself; the inability of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to compensate the national cricketers and official who were subject to the Lahore terrorist attack a fortnight ago by insurance cover for shock and trauma must with it raise serious questions as to the bona fide of SLC.

This is the candid opinion of a cross section of insurance people to whom the Sunday Observer spoke. They felt that it was a blatant negligence. A factor that rubs salt considering that the players are undergoing traumatic therapy. As one insurance expert pointed out sixty per cent of success of a cricketer depends on mental concentration, and in a situation like this players not been covered by insurance of this nature is a very serious lapse.

Take an athlete. Its his or her legs that we often hear of being preciously insured against injury. In the same way a cricketer's mental well-being would be paramount, pointed out another insurance man who noted that obviously the cricket authorities here had failed. Another pointed out that it was important that Sri Lanka Cricket should have covered players in all aspects.

"For instance if there is a marked dip in form in a player who comes back to play cricket from trauma and injury, he should be compensated taking into consideration the situation,he observed.

As they pointed out, cricket is a mental and psychological game, all about concentration, and medically it could affect victims revolving around their performance.