Terrorist attack in Pakistan puts fourth ODI in doubt

I'm Pakistani, but no longer live there - being born in Britain enabled dual nationality, and it's been many years since I visited Pakistan. But obviously, with family connections, I keep close to it. And even today, I would have no hesitations about getting on a flight and going back; it takes a lot of stories of domestic attacks to overwrite the fondness we feel for childhood memories, and I'm not there yet (and hopefully, will never be.) Spending some time talking to family in Peshawar yesterday was awful; there's a certain weathered cynicism when it comes to incidents like this, but this one really cut deep. People in Pakistan are emotional as much as they are forgiving, and even those who aren't anywhere near the city, who have no family or friends there, are in tears today.

I'm inclined to agree with you about the under-reporting. As another example, you may remember there was some very major flooding in Pakistan a few years back. Living in the UK at the time, if I didn't follow and Pakistani news channels or radio stations, I'd have barely known there was a problem. It was hardly mentioned anywhere for the first 4-5 days. Later, several international aid agencies criticised the British press and broadcasting media for neglecting this story, as they attributed the lack of charitable funding to help victims of flooding due to it being ignored by journalists. The response was along the lines of "there have been a lot of natural disasters lately, we can't talk about them all. Millions of people were displaced, but if you spoke to people in the UK during the first couple of weeks, most of them would have had no idea during the first week. And the following cursory reporting was so curt and clinical, most people didn't care.

I realise we're not really talking about cricket any more, so maybe this isn't really relevant for this sub. I just wanted to say that I agree with you wrote, that there is a good chance that this story will not get much international sympathy, or invite a "they brought it on themselves" response from people who have a very different understanding of the history and causes of what's going on. I watch and follow a lot of Pakistan cricket, but I won't be watching today's match. I do still hope that the day international cricket comes back to Pakistan will be a bellwether to signal that things have really changed in the country. But that day looks a long, long way off.

/r/Cricket Thread Link - nzherald.co.nz