Pakistani pullout was sensible

It seems that every man and his dog has an opinion on whether Australia should have pulled out of its tour of Pakistan or not, so I suppose it's only fair to give mine.

Critics have come from far and wide, arguing about the precedents that the Aussie pullout will set, and of course the obvious fact that Australians will be safe. Perfectly reasonable, us Australians are loved worldwide at the moment, aren't we? Only last year Al-Qaeda threatened to bomb Australia, and what better way to advance their cause and seem more serious than to kill off the pride of the country, its cricket team? Surely they thought that through a little more!

Imran Khan was the latest in a long line of critics, the Pakistani cricket turned sex symbol turned politician throwing his hat into the fray, repeating what everyone else in Pakistan has said. He blamed Pervez Musharraf for the political instability; that's a surprise, dictatorships rarely end in fighting and uprising, do they? On the other hand, he made a more interesting point:

"People feel the Australians are unjustified in pulling out, but Australia's decision is understandable as everything that happens in Pakistan is magnified to larger proportions abroad," Imran said. "Australians don't live here and they don't know that bombings are not aimed at sportsmen but terrorists' targets are specific. No one has ever targeted sportsmen in Pakistan."

Which brings me back to my original point that Australians are about as popular in the cricketing world as neo-nazism is to just about everyone else. Ignoring that fact, let's look at the overreaction issue. Bombs are going off in Pakistan. People's lives are in danger. There is political unrest. Magnifying an issue like that is all very well to criticise, but again, people are dying. Terrorists have assassinated the opposition leader. If there is anything here that isn't worth magnifying, let me know!

Of course Australia could worry about the precedent it is setting, but do we honestly think that what other people think and do is so important that we should risk our cricketers' lives for it? Even Andrew Symonds, the binge drinking tough guy who trained with the Broncos (although I never thought much of rugby league players) who is happy to go after streakers with shoulder charges, didn't want to tour their. In fact, he almost refused to go regardless of the outcome of the inquiry.

As far as I'm concerned, the only negative here is that players are too concerned about playing in the Indian Premier League during the cancelled tour's dates. But that's another story for another time!