"Terrorists targeted the bus drivers"

"Clearly the terrorists targeted the bus drivers," said English match official Chris Broad.

"The Sri Lanka bus driver told us afterwards that he had been shot at two or three times. They missed him so he was able to drive away. Clearly the terrorists targeted the drivers to try and get the bus stationary.

"It was only that the Sri Lankan bus had gone from the scene, they were the targets, that the terrorists felt they had missed their target. So what police were left, were firing at the terrorists, the terrorists fired back.

"Once they realised that had missed their targets they probably left."

Broad said: "I don't want to think about that, I'm hearing various stories about how a grenade was thrown under the bus but didn't go off and a rocket launcher was fired at the bus but missed. There are lots of ifs and buts.

"But it is just a major tragedy for the world of sport and Pakistan itself because I can't see cricket going back there, certainly in the distant future."

He added: "It is very difficult to put it into words. There were five of us in the back of van all lying on floor just listening to the crack of bullets going on around us and hitting the van. Every time you heard a crack you just thought 'this bullet's for me'.

"We were unaware of what was going on outside the bus, just that our van was hit several times.

"Fortunately for myself, Simon Taufel, Steve Davis, Peter Manuel and Nadeem Ghauri (the third umpire) none of the bullets hit us. Unfortunately for Ahsan Raza and for Abdul Sami, our liaison officer, both got hit.

"The terrorists had also killed our driver so we were stranded. We were sitting ducks."

"My dad saw things that he never expected to see and he never wants to see again," said Stuart Broad.

"It was dreadful. I spoke to him in the early hours of this morning and he was obviously very shook up by it all.

"It has obviously been really heart-breaking for him."

He added: "He is safe and well and looking forward to getting back to the UK.

"Not just for my old man, but for the whole of the Sri Lankan side, it is a dreadful thing to have happened.

"Luckily none of them got seriously injured and they've escaped okay.

"It is just an horrific incident and we all feel for them because we can sort of relate to the situation.

"Obviously our condolences go out to the families and loved ones who lost people in the incident."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Rate It:

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5