Gillespie:Will cut tour short in event of another terrorist attack

[Ninjaman]

All well and good, OF, but frankly I can't criticise someone if he feels scared for himself, his family or others.

As much as there are people who wish to stick it out, you must remember he also has the right to walk away.

And just because you or someone else may disagree with him, doesn't mean he has as much a right or, more importantly, should not be able to articulate his feelings about the event.

I've never been one for the "If we refuse to be terrorised, they lose every time" since it pre-supposes a certain form, perpetrator and victim of terrorism. But that argument is another one to be had at another place.

[Occasional Fan]

It's a tough one, all right. But, as I said right at the start, I understand Dizzy's point - I don't criticise him for being concerned about himself and his family, and it would be a harder man than I who would not have such concerns. My criticism is only that he voices the concern so publicly. Again, I don't deny his right to do so, but I do believe there are better ways of dealing with the overall terrorism thing. All of which said, I agree with you that it is not an easy subject to deal with here.

[greg]

If we were on tour in Sri Lanka and there had been bombs going off in Colombo we would want the England team to come home so i don't see any difference here.Maybe the ECB could swap the Oval test to Headingley to avoid London.Apart from that there is nothing we can do.

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by greg

If we were on tour in Sri Lanka and there had been bombs going off in Colombo we would want the England team to come home.

You can exclude me from that sentiment.

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by greg

If we were on tour in Sri Lanka and there had been bombs going off in Colombo we would want the England team to come home so i don't see any difference here..

There is a huge difference. England is a western democracy as is Australia. To sever any form of connection between Western Europe, North America and Aus/NZ is handing a victory to the terrorists. DEFAT (Aus dept. foriegn affairs) will never issue a warning to defer any non essential travel to these countries for political reasons - we are all in this together (although France/Germany have not woken up to the fact yet) and must continue with buisiness as normal.
Without this warning from DEFAT, the Aussie cricketers have no choice but to continue the tour - to do otherwise constitutes breaking their contract, and the ACB will bear the brunt of legal action from the ECB, and all the media networks that have a financial stake in this tour. If the ACB cancelled the tour without consent from DEFAT, they would be liable and the resulting legal action would send them bankrupt.
Now you know why his nickname is Dizzy. He is as thick as a brick and CA would be well served to gag him in future before he stupidly shoots his mouth off again.

[Aussie-Yank]

Originally Posted by Ninjaman

The best part of the article was this

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that during a security briefing one player said if similar incidents had occurred in a country such as Pakistan there would be a push to end the trip. There is little doubt that if the team had been in a third world country the explosions would have forced them home.

Yes, some great newspaper truth there - If one of the Australian players actually said that, the paper would have said the players name. No one actually said it, but it makes great head lines. Australian players have been in Colombo and Karachi when bombs have gone off and the tour has gone on. The case here that is different is the fact that there have been multiple bombings and has happened twice.

The article was stating if we had a third occurance, Dizzy was stating what he would do and not what the Australian players would do. Some would want to continue (I know if my family was in London I would be flying them out, but I would play on - I would not lose respect for anyone wanting to leave - thats there right).

[Beny]

Ohh leave him alone... It's not his fault he's an idiot.

[Leafy Seadragon]

Out of curiosity, what did he actually say? The local paper here (presumably a little biased being Adelaide) indicated that he said the Aussies would need to 'reconsider' their position. Is that what was actually stated? or was it more "na, stuff that, we're out of here"?

[Occasional Fan]

Cricinfo report is linked here.