Cricket in India has never been under siege the way it has been since the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai since Wednesday.

By Rajarshi Gupta

Gun-wielding, maniacal assassins stormed into the Taj Palace and The Trident hotels in Mumbai late on Wednesday, just as India were finishing another demolition job on England in Cuttack in the fifth ODI of the seven match series.

The Indian cricket team were shining brightly. They had scorched the visting Australians in the Test series and were on a roll against England, well on their way to a series whitewash after going 5-0 up that fateful night.

And then, in a flash, it all started to go horribly wrong.

Mumbai was gripped by a sense of horror. At stake were human lives and property that stood for the very pride of a great city.

At stake was the very foundation that unites a great country. Cricket. Within hours of the senseless killings in Mumbai, the England cricket team had decided to go home. And rightly so with an entire nation in a terrible state of shock.

While the England and Wales Cricket Board have since decided to go ahead with the Test series as scheduled, the biggest disappointment to cricket lovers in India will have come when the inaugral edition of the Champions League Twenty20 was rescheuled to early next year instead of its original December 3 start.

The hype that was building around the event had almost reached a crescendo. Expectations had reached fever pitch.

However, the Governing Council of the Champions League Twenty20 stepped in. They decided cricket could not be played in an environment of terror, especially a tournament that had intended to bring sheer joy and cluster the best talents in the world for a week of action-filled cricket.

Human lives are being lost even as this piece is being written. Armed forces are storming into the areas under siege and rescue operations are on in full swing.

Peace will return soon. Normality will be restored. The spirit of the Indian people and cricket will rise again.

BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi came under heavy fire from the British media for suggesting that the Kevin Pietersen led team would return to India for the Test series next month.

While the media back in England were right in expressing concern for their heroes, Modi may well have been misinterpreted.

Modi would not want India and the game itself to bow down to the ghastly acts of the insanity that has unfolded over the last two days.

Cricket will survive in this country. Rest assured, the first Test between India and England will start on December 11. It is in moments like these that you start to think how sweet the sound of bat meeting ball is.

The ashes will soon subside, and the dawn will bring along the tranquility cricket deservedly demands