Not a time for symbolism - Inbox at Cricinfo

We Indians love our cricket. But we can't see poor English blokes coming here against their better judgment because they are getting a chance to play Test cricket for England in the event of big names opting out. Will the visiting English fans be given round the clock security, in the unlikely event that they come here to cheer their team? How can we, after an attack as horrendous as this, assume responsibility for the safety of foreigners, when we can no longer guarantee the safety of the locals? I am a little skeptical about the response I will get if I walk into a police station and ask for security because I feel unsafe.

India is unsafe at the moment. Five major attacks have taken place around the country this year - in Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Guwahati and now Mumbai. India has now become a convenient target for the terrorist groups, which can no longer immigrate militants to the western world that easily anymore. If there is a militant group, with sophisticated weaponry at its disposal, intent on finding a vulnerable point in a country as big as India, they will find it. Our establishment is not prepared for unprecedented attacks, and pretending otherwise to the outside world is only hurting us Indians in the end.

The game should be played in an atmosphere of joy and calm. Touring abroad is all about enjoying the foreign culture and playing the game with the players' minds on the game, not getting locked up in their hotels. Let us not reduce the sport to a torturous obligation for the players and their families. If a strong message has to be sent to the terror network, the authorities should once and for all stop being politically correct, extend their vocabulary beyond 'we strongly condemn the attack' and get down to business.

At this point in time, I shall refrain from speculating on the ongoing investigations and possible roots of this attack. When the Test series gets underway, the last thing anyone wants to see is empty stands. Charging the locals half their wages for a lone ticket will be a stamp on the unofficially accepted notion that the Indian cricketing authorities are woefully ignorant and illiterate as far as the understanding of the game is concerned. Let the gates be thrown open. Not literally, of course.

india has not been "safe" for a long time. molestation of foreign tourists is fairly common. riots erupt regularly. nuns are raped. women are burnt. innocents people are run over by drunk drivers. bar maids are shot in the open. blueline buses crush cyclists like we crush cockroaches. the list is endless. yes, the mumbai attack was different, it was televised with a catchy name "26/11". not by any means, am i minimizing the tragedy, but its natural to get sucked in by all this media coverage. just wait till the media is done milking the story. then what? terror attacks will not stop, and neither should our lives. and what better way to show that than to play and watch cricket.

@gaurav "terror attacks will not stop, and neither should our lives. and what better way to show that than to play and watch cricket."
Is there really an urgency to show that? Is it worth deploying thousands of policeman to protect a visiting cricket team, when there are far more important issues that need to be addressed? Are you content with the current status quo of an unsafe environment or would you rather prefer if things are changed once and for all to make India safe for everyone? You don't change the system with these quick fix 5000 security cops at the stadium, you just show how stubborn you are to acknowledge that things need to be fixed.
I'm in total agreement with this article. How many of you really think the BCCI would have pushed for this tour to continue if the Twenty Leagues weren't under threat?

Anjo and Apoorv -
I strongly disagree with your viewpoints and YES, THERE IS AN URGENCY TO SHOW THAT LIFE IS NORMAL. And cricket is doing its part in doing that. Do you know that many organizations have put travel sanctions on Mumbai? Unless it is seen as a normal venue, these sanctions are going to stay for a while, and that is doing a lot of damage, both direct and indirect. Life has to go on... "The game should be played in an atmosphere of joy and calm." - I agree, and so other things that we do behind the closed doors... have we stopped doing those things because of terror attacks? If not then why cricket?

Gaurav - I think you are going overboard with your super-pessimistic portrayal of the situation in India. All those things listed by you are internal accidents/disturbances, which our country(assuming you are an Indian, which I don't believe fully) has control over. They are indeed controlled/prevented to a great extent, even if not fully. For every type of victims you have mentioned, there are thousands of similar people who are feeling safe and secure in India. But terrorist attacks are not the same as the internal problems. No part of our country is immune from terrorist attacks carried out by brainwashed rabid dogs coming from a fit-for-nothing country. They are being directed envily at us to disrupt this country's progress and harmony. we do need to do more than symbolism to prevent such atatcks from happening. Cricket, definitely is not a priority right now and I fear it might take the focus off the real problems and enemies facing our country.

believe me, i want to see flintoff steaming in to sachin around the wicket with a short leg in place..
my sole point was.. the security of the cricketers has been heightened while we locals are still in the same position.. does that make their lives more important than ours?
placing security personnal in every nook n corner of our country is not the solution. pak has to be put under unrelenting pressure to dismantle the terror network very much in existence and operation on pakistani soil.
my fear is that the talkshows, the lighting of candles, evrything will be forgotten in a few days.. exactly what our govt wants..
I have gone bald, pulling out my hair everytime i hear 'we condemn this attack'..if i was convinced that indian n pak govt wud be doing all they can to solve this prob, i wudnt be writing this at all..

@Tushar
Why have these orgs put these sanctions on Mumbai? There is something fundamentally wrong with the way security in the city is managed and until that is overhauled sanctions should remain. You seem to think that if we just ignore the problem and put up this facade that everything is fine then the problem will go away. I'm not sure how big a priority it is to the terrorists to see they're responsible for the cancellation of a cricket series, but I would think their motives are more ambitious. We don't need to show we are capable of resuming our daily lives, aren't we giving them more than necessary attention by "showing them" this. I say let us the common folk ignore them and what they think, but insist that the men in charge make our cities safer for us. If that means overhauling the system and suspending cricket matches for that duration because security is poor, that makes more sense than denying there is a problem and covering it up temporarily with 1000s of security guards.

The Chennai test just got over. The the way the match itself was conducted rebuts the author's fears and apprehensions totally. Terrosim took the back seat, the English team played without any fear whatsoever and contributed in a big way to make this Test match memorable. Their having lost finally does not take away anything in terms of their resolve and charecter in having come back to India and stood shoulder to shoulder with Indians. The Test match was not a facade as has been suggested but a show of solidarity by a civilised nation which has a long history.