Dylan Cleaver: Terror intrudes into sport's playground

Manchester United's Paul Scholes, right, is kissed by team mate Gary Neville after scoring a winning goal. Photo / AP

It should have been a weekend to revel in for the glory of sport.

On Saturday night, the Reds and Bulls played out a classic Super 14 encounter, reminding everybody that rugby has the capacity to thrill even when points are not being piled on.

A few hours later, two local derbies of contrasting nature kept the Premier League alive and provided one of sport's pantomime villains, John Terry, with a healthy dose of comeuppance.

Just like on the other 363 days of the year, V8s roared around their spiritual home of Hamilton, only this time they weren't doing so in defiance of the road code.

I'm sure, had I managed to watch more than the odd minute of the NRL, something amazing would have happened, too. Doesn't it every week? But clearly not at Mt Smart.

The biggest reverberations of the sporting weekend, however, were, quite literally, felt in Bangalore.

Depending on which report you read, a bomb was detonated outside Chinnaswamy Stadium 45 minutes before the start of the Indian Premier League match between the Royal Challengers of Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians.

A much larger device was found soon after and detonated safely.

Several people were injured, though none fatally.

Just where this leaves sport on the subcontinent in the immediate future is hard to gauge, but one thing is sure, the various Olympic committees that were positively buoyant about sending their athletes to Delhi in October, including ours, might have had the spring taken out of their step.

A release from the New Zealand Olympic Committee yesterday said the organisation "is taking the incident seriously". Which must be hugely reassuring for athletes. Not.

The NZOC will also "be seeking advice from the New Zealand Government's major events security committee" and taking action accordingly, whatever that means.

This is a flawed approach. Governments are in the business of politics and there are millions of dollars' worth of reasons why the Government will be wary of offending India in any way.

The NZOC needs to pay for robust, totally independent security advice before it sends any of its athletes into a region that has been blighted by these sorts of attacks in recent years.

After all, it's not the Government's responsibility to keep the athletes safe on the ground in India, it's the NZOC's.

One of the conclusions drawn from the Bangalore bombing seems to be the fact that the explosion took place outside the stadium was a win for the security forces.

Really? The thought that somebody (or somebodies) managed to get two bags of bad stuff so close to the ground is nothing to feel reassured about. If the second bomb, the one that was found, had been timed to go off at the conclusion of the match, when the crowd was pouring out of the stadium, there could have been carnage.

Details are also murky about what went on inside the stadium, but it seems pretty clear that the players were not happy about the information they were receiving and the way it was presented to them.

If, as one report suggested, it was left to a vote of the players to decide whether the match went ahead, then all the concerns expressed by the various player associations in the build-up to the tournament, concerns that were often derided as self-serving showboating, would appear instead to be well-founded.

Players are skilled in the art of batting and bowling. Few would list one of their strengths as terrorist risk assessment, yet here they were (allegedly) voting on whether it was safe enough to play. Might as well make it easier next time and just do rock-paper-scissors.

Bangalore might have provided the most explosive backdrop to the sporting weekend, but there were fireworks of a different kind in Manchester and London.

With just seconds remaining in stoppage time, Manchester United's favourite red-head, Paul Scholes, popped up to score a winner against City.

That would have meant little if Chelsea had beaten London rivals Tottenham, but they didn't. Even better, Chelsea's odious captain, John Terry, gave away a penalty and was sent off in the 2-1 defeat. The title race is separated by just one point with three matches to play.

For many, choosing between Chelsea and United for the title is to be between the devil and the deep blue sea. Both ceased to be soccer clubs, in the true sense, a long time ago, with United's Old Trafford a glorified hypermarket (they even "sell" dreams), and Chelsea a Russian oligarch's plaything.

But, as hard as it is to admit it, with the likes of Scholes, Ryan Giggs and, gulp, Gary Neville, United at least has some ties to the community they represent and a few old-world values (Neville's post-goal connubials with Scholes notwithstanding - see picture).

WEEKEND WINNER

Joe Rokocoko - he's back scoring tries and he's even smiling again. Will the love be shared by the All Black selectors?

WHAT TO WATCH

Reds v Stormers, SS1, Friday 9.40pm. The Reds served up a cracker with the Bulls, and the clash with the in-form Stormers promises to be just as good.