The South African cricket team arrived in Johannesburg on Saturday morning, after withdrawing from a triangular one-day tournament in Sri Lanka earlier this week.
Coach Mickey Arthur said the players were relieved to be home, although they were disappointed at having to pull out of the tournament.
”From a cricketing point of view, it was a disaster,” said Arthur. ”It was an ideal opportunity for some of the younger players to make an impression ahead of the Champions Trophy [in India] later this year, and the World Cup next year.
”We need to reschedule out programme, because it is very important that we go into the Champions Trophy well prepared.”
Arthur and team captain Mark Boucher dismissed suggestions in the Sri Lankan media that South Africa had pulled out of the tournament because they feared being thrashed by Sri Lanka and India.
”That’s just nonsense,” said Arthur. ”We all wanted to play. South African cricketers are known for their fighting spirit, and we were all looking forward to the tournament.
”But from the time we arrived in Colombo in mid-July, there had been a definite deterioration in the security situation there. The climate in Colombo changed, and you could tell that the people were getting apprehensive.
”The bomb that went off on Monday was, in fact, the second bomb explosion while we were there, and there were other signs that the political situation was escalating.”
Arthur said that on the day the bomb exploded at the Liberty Plaza, close to the team’s hotel, he had arranged an indoor practice for the players, who had been confined to the hotel because of monsoon rains.
”If we had not been at the indoor practice, some of the players could well have been there. And three of our fast-bowlers — Andre Nel, Roger Telemachus and Dale Steyn — left the practice early, because they couldn’t really train there, and they passed the scene of the bomb blast about 10 minutes before the explosion.”
Boucher said that after the second explosion, the players had expressed their concern about the security situation to their security officers. ”But after that we left it up to them, and were prepared to follow their advice.”
He said it had been tough being confined to the hotel while decisions were made about the future of the tour. ”It meant that you couldn’t go out and explore, you had to go to the same restaurant for meals all the time – that’s not what touring is about.”
The chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, Tony Irish, reiterated that the decision to pull out of the tour had been a Cricket South Africa (CSA) decision, and not the decision of the players.
”We were involved in the discussions with CSA and with the International Cricket Council [ICC] throughout, and we were in constant contact with the players,” said Irish.
He pointed out that CSA’s security consultants had done a security assessment before the tour began, and had found the threat to players’ safety to be an acceptable level.
”But after the second explosion, CSA asked the ICC security consultants, the Olive Group, to conduct another assessment, and they found the risk to be unacceptably high, not just because of the bomb blast, but [also] because of a series of incidents in Sri Lanka.”
He emphasised that there had been no direct threat to the players, but that the risk was ”situational”. It was also believed that the ”presidential level” security offered to the team could increase the danger, because military installations and convoys were often the target of the Tamil rebels. — Sapa