Mumbai's innocence is lost, rues Waugh

MELBOURNE: India has been robbed of its innocence by the ghastly terror strike in Mumbai but cricket in the country will resume after a short break as it is a way of life and a symbol of hope for the people there, feels former Australian skipper Steve Waugh.

���My gut feeling is that cricket will see an interruption in the short term but business will resume as normal shortly afterwards,������ Waugh, who has a long association with a charity for children of leprosy patients in India, said.
���The game of cricket in India is a way of life and a symbol of hope and, as such, it has the ability to restore faith and instill confidence,������ he wrote in his column for Daily Telegraph.

Waugh said abandoning of the ODI series by England and postponement of the Twenty20 Champions League were short-term reactions towards the tragedy. ���Perversely, after such a major incident India will probably be a much safer place to be than previously, for security will reach unprecedented levels at airports, five-star hotels and places where people congregate. But such is human nature that confidence will be hard to restore in the short term,������ he explained.

The former Aussie skipper felt the terror attack was just one of the crisis facing the game���s administrators , who are already battling to save cricket in strife-torn Pakistan and politically volatile Zimbabwe .

Waugh recalled how he himself defied the briefing advice and took strolls down the streets ���to see the real India and capture it through my lens to give me a sense of freedom and reality������ . ���Sadly, now this sense of innocence has been extinguished and touring life for future cricket teams will revolve around club sandwiches and inhouse movies,������ he said.