A dozen young men of Pakistani origins have been arrested in confused circumstances, which do little credit to the street sense of Britain’s head of counter-terrorist policing. The man in question, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, was photographed going in to see the Prime Minister with a sheaf of papers under one arm, which when ‘blown up’ (a somewhat unfortunate photographic phrase in the context) revealed the nature of the intended arrests there for anyone with a long lens to see. The operation against the suspects was accordingly brought forward by ten hours, and may have been compromised, the presumption being that these kind of things usually require intense and to-the-second planning. However, as far as anyone is telling us, all the suspects were in fact brought into custody, Great Britain is as safe as it ever has been, and it now remains to be seen whether the evidence for the young Pakistanis’ participation in any possible intended terrorist outrage will be forthcoming.
All but one of the suspects were in Britain on visas which allowed them to be here for named educational purposes. It’s a surprising system which seems to offer potential evildoers a loophole, and in future weeks much may be made of this both here and abroad. All of them came from the North-west province of Pakistan where, it is suspected, Al-Qaeda, now has its base of operations.
Each year, at this time, a remarkable book is published. It’s called Wisden, and in its pages the previous year’s doings in world cricket are methodically set down. It won’t surprise you to learn that it’s a sizeable tome, running to well over a thousand pages. I made it into Wisden just the once, in 1969, under the entry for the modestly posh school I then attended. I’m one of many thousands who feel that even if we didn’t get a knighthood, or become a millionaire, well at least we achieved that.
Each year there are many jolly, sad or interesting things to be gleaned from what my wife describes as the ‘brick’ (the colour of its cover is a brick-like yellow, and when it’s wrapped up, in the guise of my annual birthday present, it could be taken for the same. Always assuming you had a family cheapskate enough to load you with building materials as a gift! ) One of the more workaday things to which the 2009 edition draws attention is that Pakistan has failed to play any long-form international matches (‘Test’ matches) this year. There are a variety of reasons for this.
One is that the five-day form of international cricket is waning in its appeal in some parts of the world, and one of them is Pakistan. The shorter the game, the better, many people (particularly TV executives?) feel. This is a Big Subject. Partly it’s about perceived entertainment value. Already I can hear you saying ‘Jeez, five days, to play one match?’ I understand the incredulity. But think about other things you like doing a lot, and ask yourselves whether necessarily shorter makes for better. I thought you’d get my point.
And of course where Pakistan is concerned, security is also an issue. Just a month or so ago, there was an attack on a Sri Lankan team playing in Lahore. The team escaped without fatalities, although some leading players were wounded. A number of policemen, there to guard against exactly this kind of possibility, were killed. It’s hard to see other teams travelling to Pakistan to play in the forseeable future. And Pakistani teams touring abroad haven’t always made themselves popular either.
Recently coaches of the Pakistani team have had to contend with not only the traditional rivalries which seem endemic to the game there, but a religious ethos within the team, a by-product of which may have been the conversion of one of its leading players from Christianity to Islam. Yousuf Youhana became Mohammad Yousuf, and started scoring a lot more runs than he had before. It’s hard to know what to read into that.
How does radical Islam see sport? Exactly how important is it that we maintain our cricketing links with Pakistan, including the playing of their matches in Britain as a ‘neutral’ venue. Or is that also too risky in security terms? Simply in cricketing terms, they’ve produced some of the world’s finest players over the last thirty years. It will be a great shame if they’re seen no more. On the other hand many non-Pakistani English feel threatened, puzzled and hurt by an ‘enemy within’. Some more sensible immigration and visa procedures would help.
All but one of the suspects were in Britain on visas which allowed them to be here for named educational purposes. It’s a surprising system which seems to offer potential evildoers a loophole, and in future weeks much may be made of this both here and abroad. All of them came from the North-west province of Pakistan where, it is suspected, Al-Qaeda, now has its base of operations.
Each year, at this time, a remarkable book is published. It’s called Wisden, and in its pages the previous year’s doings in world cricket are methodically set down. It won’t surprise you to learn that it’s a sizeable tome, running to well over a thousand pages. I made it into Wisden just the once, in 1969, under the entry for the modestly posh school I then attended. I’m one of many thousands who feel that even if we didn’t get a knighthood, or become a millionaire, well at least we achieved that.
Each year there are many jolly, sad or interesting things to be gleaned from what my wife describes as the ‘brick’ (the colour of its cover is a brick-like yellow, and when it’s wrapped up, in the guise of my annual birthday present, it could be taken for the same. Always assuming you had a family cheapskate enough to load you with building materials as a gift! ) One of the more workaday things to which the 2009 edition draws attention is that Pakistan has failed to play any long-form international matches (‘Test’ matches) this year. There are a variety of reasons for this.
One is that the five-day form of international cricket is waning in its appeal in some parts of the world, and one of them is Pakistan. The shorter the game, the better, many people (particularly TV executives?) feel. This is a Big Subject. Partly it’s about perceived entertainment value. Already I can hear you saying ‘Jeez, five days, to play one match?’ I understand the incredulity. But think about other things you like doing a lot, and ask yourselves whether necessarily shorter makes for better. I thought you’d get my point.
And of course where Pakistan is concerned, security is also an issue. Just a month or so ago, there was an attack on a Sri Lankan team playing in Lahore. The team escaped without fatalities, although some leading players were wounded. A number of policemen, there to guard against exactly this kind of possibility, were killed. It’s hard to see other teams travelling to Pakistan to play in the forseeable future. And Pakistani teams touring abroad haven’t always made themselves popular either.
Recently coaches of the Pakistani team have had to contend with not only the traditional rivalries which seem endemic to the game there, but a religious ethos within the team, a by-product of which may have been the conversion of one of its leading players from Christianity to Islam. Yousuf Youhana became Mohammad Yousuf, and started scoring a lot more runs than he had before. It’s hard to know what to read into that.
How does radical Islam see sport? Exactly how important is it that we maintain our cricketing links with Pakistan, including the playing of their matches in Britain as a ‘neutral’ venue. Or is that also too risky in security terms? Simply in cricketing terms, they’ve produced some of the world’s finest players over the last thirty years. It will be a great shame if they’re seen no more. On the other hand many non-Pakistani English feel threatened, puzzled and hurt by an ‘enemy within’. Some more sensible immigration and visa procedures would help.
