David Leggat: Sportspeople fair game for the evil-hearted

International cricket changed forever this week.

It's not as though there haven't been crises dotted through the game's history.

The Bodyline bustup of 1932-33 threatened to cut relations between England and Australia; Kerry Packer's revolution, which brought more pay, more television angles, white balls and coloured clothing had a staggering effect on the game and brought a change to the game as significant, in relative terms, to the arrival of colour TV.

But those were cricketing issues. The future of the game, in simple playing terms, was never in jeopardy. It would always have survived those disputes, substantial though they were at the time.

Bombs have gone off before in the sub-continent. New Zealand have had their share of close calls. Twice in Sri Lanka, in 1987 and 1992, explosions proved shattering experiences for players and officials. So too at Karachi seven years ago.

That trip, as with the first one to Sri Lanka, was abandoned. The second in Sri Lanka carried on after a week's settling down time, albeit with a clutch of new players replacing five who had headed home.

There has been an old line optimists have clung to thus far: that no sports teams have been specifically targeted by terrorists in Asia.

Put it another way: those that have been caught up in incidents were simply unlucky to be in the wrong place - or lucky to have been just far enough away to feel the impact without suffering the consequences.

But the attack on the Sri Lankan squad in Lahore has shifted the ground irrevocably. Pakistan, as a venue for international cricket, is finished for the foreseeable future. The International Cricket Council can couch it in whatever diplomatic language it likes. Teams will not travel there for years. End of story.

First off, that is sadness for the cricket people of Pakistan, players, officials and fans. There's an unfortunate tendency among those of a hardline disposition to write the country off as a corrupting influence - in a cricketing sense - with a trace of "we're better off without that lot anyway" able to be read between the lines. Which just shows narrow, bigoted thinking can be found in most walks of life.

Secondly, this year a new Future Tours Programme was to be put in place by the ICC to follow the current arrangement which runs until 2012.

They can start that again and delete all proposed trips to Pakistan. Pakistan might, as a short-term measure, adopt the United Arab Emirates as a de facto home. They've played there frequently, and there's a large expatriate population. Support won't be lacking.

Alternative ideas floated in the past few months include playing a "home" series in England. Some counties have an interest in that, understandably so given the ethnic makeup of their part of England, Birmingham being perhaps the best example.

Then there's the World Cup in 2011. It was to be hosted by India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Was, because four now becomes three, which means contractual arrangements redrawn, logistical planning to start again. And who's to say the remaining three won't be subject to the ugliness Lahore endured on Tuesday. Terrorism in Mumbai last November claimed about 200 lives; Sri Lanka's civil war has been running decades, violence often ensuing.

When India's captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni two or three times remarked that "we are glad we are in New Zealand" on Tuesday night, there was a subtext beyond the obvious. India were due to be in Pakistan, until their Government stopped them going in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Sri Lanka agreed to replace them.

How must those decision-makers be feeling. The darkness that descended on Lahore this week puts sport in a sobering light. It has always been a soft target. Now it seems it is fair game for those with evil in their hearts.