March 3, 2009: It has been almost 16 years since an attack came upon the Sri Lankan tour bus in Lahore, Pakistan, by terrorists. The terror attack went on this day in 2009. It happened on the third day of the Test match. At around 9 am local time, 12 gunmen did an attack on the team bus just outside Gaddafi Stadium.
The gunmen opened fire on the bus as it passed the Liberty Statue, also firing at the vehicle transporting match officials. In this dastardly act of terror, six policemen and two civilians were killed. This also led to Pakistan taking international cricket’s ICC stripping away the hosting rights from the region for the World Cup tournament in 2011.
The then PCB Director Wasim Bari recounted to BPTI regarding the details of the infamous day.
“It was the worst day in my life when news came through of what had happened. Everybody was numbed, and most of us in our office realized immediately that whatever went down would set Pakistan cricket back by years,” PTI news agency quoted him as saying.
“It should never have happened, and the result was that Pakistan cricket would not be able to grow properly for 10 years, as teams refused to play in Pakistan for security reasons,” said Wasim Bari.
The bus of the Sri Lankan players saw 17 injuries, including those of Thilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Tharanga Paranavitana, Ajantha Mendis, and Suranga Lakmal.
Due to the shrapnel injuries, Samaraweera and Paranavitana were admitted to a hospital.
In the aftermath of the terror attack, the cricketing nations refused to tour Pakistan, forcing the Asian giants to play their home matches in Dubai. Under this umbrella, international cricket resumed in 2015 when Zimbabwe visited Pakistan. They played two T20Is and three ODIs then.
Sri Lanka later returned to Pakistan in 2019. By then, the two teams already engaged in three ODIs and three T20I matches. Pakistan is now hosting the 2025 Champions Trophy, marking the first time in 29 years that an ICC competition was hosted in Pakistan.
