BRITISH FEAR

England Cricket tour of India hangs on fire. Why this hesitation and confusion over the completion of a committed official tour? Of course the trauma caused by the Mumbai attack may be a severe blow to the confidence and moral spirit of sports.

The terror caused by the infiltrators has shaken the core of secular and democratic spirit of our people. This is an unprecedented cruelty caused on innocent people. The ghastly scenes of terror were starkly being telecasted and made feel the impact widely and deeply.

Still these players are real heroes. They should not cringe or hide behind some reason. It is their out of turn opportunity to prove they are of different mettle. They can face and overcome any eventuality. They should not by deterred by such skirmishes and stand tall to exhibit the grit and determination to proceed further without any hesitation or fear.

This is an unusual situation. The whole world is determined to find out a plausible solution to this international problem. Especially where the innocent victims are elite citizens of many major countries it has become a collective responsibility to find out an immediate solution and prove to the terrorists that they cannot be hoodwinked by all these threats and damages.

At this juncture it is the responsibility of any civilized nation to stand above the situation and scorn at this barbaric and dastardly atrocity. The British are the forerunners and guardians of so many democratic nations in the commonwealth. They should set an example by their response and behaviour.

But what is happening actually at the UK? The press takes all out effort to dissuade the on-going tour by exposing the traumatizing ghastly vedio clippings and finding imaginary scenes reasoning out so many motives and causes for the terror, making inroads into intangible incidents and effects, confusing themselves and construing unwanted religious approaches in Indian politics, driving a division in internal communal harmony and establishing their divisive tactics once again. Is this the responsibility of a matured press? What are the ethics that govern the responsible fourth column?

Furthermore the former players like Geoff Boycott and Dominic Cork are explicitly giving statements restraining the touring team to avoid taking unnecessary risks by entrusting top priority to their families. Meanwhile ECB has sent Security Chief Reg Dickason to assess the safety conditions and arrangements in person. His favourable report along with the positive statements of Sir Iam Botham and Andrew Strauss, and ICC President David Morgan has kept the English team on the right track and confirmed the participation of the remaining part of the current tour.

Sir Iam Botham's outlook is impressive and adorable. His statement that 'it is exactly the right attitude. It is common sense prevailing. What went on in Mumbai was hideous and horrendous but the best way to address it is for the players to go out there and play cricket' is more commendable.

So also all affected people remember the words of ICC President David Morgan. His statement that, 'we have to think of the business of cricket as well as the game of cricket. The terrorists cannot be allowed to win,' is sterling and a moral booster for every cricket and peace loving citizen of the world.

The positive outlook and the mental strength of each one should be unperturbed and think that the Mumbai tragedy is unexpected and unavoidable one. We cannot avoid such incidents in our life. Any nation cannot withdraw its activities by such incidents. We cannot close our sea trade just because of sea piracy at Somali area or we cannot avoid countries like Islamabad were similar bomb blasts took place or the seizure of airports likeThai International deter us. Such incidents would take place in every country sometime or other. These occurances are normal in daytoday life. These things are to be treated as an iota of tragedy in the sea of human existence or a spec of dust in the vast panoram of global life. Our mindset should be tuned to treat this with distain and contempt but we must proceed in life with zest and confidence.

SEA PIRACY

Indian Ocean is pested with sea piracy. It is a region where sea traffic is immense and daily a minimum of 250 vessels are passing through in this area. Still the vessels are intercepted and pirated very often. Of course it has been a regular phenomena in seafaring from bygone days.

The days are changing fast. Now we have introduced latest communication technologies, satellite surveillance, point blank laser guided weapons, meticulous tracking of any tiny object in any part of the universe but we cannot control properly this menace or guard our ocean routes.

Indian warships have destroyed one of the mother vessels of piracy. It is a laudable feat. But it may not be the end of it all. On the other hand it may provoke the wrath of the prevailing pirates and jeopardise the fate of other Indian prisoners as well as the prisoners of other nations in sea piracy.

This crime should be annihilated by the co-ordination of all international community of nations. The breeding ground and developing routes should be destroyed and watch out that it should not raise its ugly criminal head in future.

There is no government or controlling national body at Somali. The groups that operate from Somali should be detected by an international body and put to an end to this heinous crime permanently. Otherwise it may develop and engulf the whole sea route and assimilate bigger commercial carriers worth billions of dollars of international consumer commodities making way for black marketing at nearby weaker nations and raising immense wealth for underworld activities.

The future would be challenging to think that this ill-gotten wealth might further lead to international terrorism and mass destruction in civilized nations.