The grimmest issue for cricket could be the future of the 2011 World Cup, which was to be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. With players and governments from across the cricket world ranged against playing in Pakistan, the World Cup itinerary may have to be restructured, with Pakistan out of the scheme of things. This might be irksome to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which has leaned heavily on the Pakistan Cricket Board for votes to establish its near-hegemony. But now the BCCI may be left with no choice in the matter.

Intelligence reports coupled with popular sentiment are likely to compel the Indian government to take a stand, as it did for the tour which was scrapped late last year.

In all fairness, the sub-continent has been volatile in recent years: the LTTE problem has revisted Lanka, Bangladesh grappled with a mutiny, and India has barely recovered from 26/11. But more than any other, Pakistan has been viewed as a fragile state waiting to implode by the international community.

There was always the threat to a high-visibility event like a cricket tour and it is a moot point whether Tuesday's attack was not, in fact, intended for the Indian team had it toured Pakistan as scheduled, though it must be argued that the security arrangements then would have been different. Indeed, there is bitter irony in the fact that the Sri Lankans, who tried to help out Pakistan by becoming the first overseas team to tour there in 14 months, should have been the target of this attack.

That manifests the incoherent nature of contemporary terrorism where innocent people are killed, as during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.

The mindlessness of Tuesday's act will have left the global anti-terror protagonists even more bewildered, and the international sports fraternity, especially cricket, bedevilled.

Ayaz Memon/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication