FICA Reaction To Lahore Ambush – 03/03/2009

FICA Reaction To Lahore Ambush – 03/03/2009 The Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations’ (FICA) Chief Executive Tim May today relayed the thoughts and prayers of FICA, its Member Associations and players across the world, following the ambush on the Sri Lanka team and match officials in Lahore. "Our thoughts and prayers are with not only the Sri Lankan players, officials and security personnel that were subjected to such an attack, but also to the cricket loving people of Pakistan. It is a significant blow to cricket within Pakistan and of concern to the international cricketing community." May confirmed that he had met with ICC officials last week to table a number of security concerns that had been raised by a recent survey of players regarding Player Safety and Security. "Unfortunately today’s tragedy only heightens those concerns " "At this time its not appropriate to go into the detail of either the survey or the meeting, but there was a general acceptance that cricket needs to construct firm processes involving both players and administrators to address any effects on cricket that an escalation of terrorism may have in cricket playing countries . May further stated that FICA supports the creation of a Security Summit involving industry and area experts, other sports, player representatives and other appropriately skilled attendees to brainstorm ways of mitigating the rising risk of safety within a number of countries. "We owe to it the game and all of its stakeholders to ensure that at all times cricket has not only access to, but implements "best practice" security – we should leave no stone unturned in the search and implementation of such advice and procedures. May confirmed that FICA’s and the players concerns are not only limited to ICC Events and Bi lateral tours, but also to the staging of domestic events involving international players in "high risk countries". "We have written to the Indian Premier League on behalf of our members requesting an ability for player representatives to be involved in the evaluation and construction of security for the Event – an increasing number of players have expressed a desire for an independent level of comfort surrounding security arrangements re this Event"