An overpowering bleakness

Very well written. I remember recently in the Border/Gavaskar Series commentators making the comment that Cricket in India was so much safer/different than Cricket in Pakistan..... Obvioulsy wrong, but this is not just a sad day for India, but a sad day for the world.

Hi Sambit, It is in moments such as these that we realise the good fortune of having quality journalists bring sport to our desks around the world. I echo your voice, sentiment and view............though I could not string a few words together to say an apt sentence to sum up my views. You touched my heart with this one................. Keep going mate............ Anand Datla

Everyone is entitled to their reaction to tragic events like this but what is the difference with the terrorist shooter at Virginia Tech, he was young too, or the Columbine Terrorists. We should not make it more evil because its in a "non-Western" setting.Life and sporting events went on in the US after 9/11. Cricket is one expression of the psyche of Indian people, it should go on.As for cricketers,English or otherwise not touring India, many probably won't and it's difficult to critiscise them for it but people did not stop visiting New York, and after the terrorists acts in London cricket or tourists did not stop visiting England.

Good thought Sambit, Life is much much more larger than Cricket, I dont think people understood it when a cricketer leaves a tour to attend to his breaking marriage or attend to his ailing parents or to goes to be there when his child is born. Somehow we have to understand it just a game after all. Yes, I'm in Love with the game but it can wait, we have bigger issues here.It surely will be one of the methods in which we shall come out of this bad phase though. I live at Kolkata for now, My younger brother works at Mumbai, and I have left all work just to follow the news because this is one story which would not be forgotten in many decades to come. My heart goes out to all those who have been affected. Again If I was in Mumbai now, I would not hesitate to go to the stadium when the cricket happens, as would others do. Security of the players though should be the biggest priority when a tournament is scheduled.

With regard to fhmalik: All very heartwarming, but a rose tinted view on the subject. Where can starving children in sub saharan go to watch an engrossing cricket match? Where do you suppose their nearest TV is? Their nearest radio? They certainly can't all go and watch it live in a stadium (if they can afford to get in). So whilst I agree that cricket - and sport generally - may well be a welcome distraction from life's troubles for some, accessing live cricket is for some in the poorest regions of the world impossible, which puts the mockers on your arguements. Moreover, Alex Bannister once said: "Pressure? Pressure is having a Messerschmitt up your arse." That's real pressure. That's a real life and death situation. Cricket by comparrison is a trival pursuit and I really wish people - fans, national boards, media broadcasters - would remember that.

Mr. Sambit Bal it was really touching, I've stayed in Mumbai for 3-4 years and feel the same way you do. I felt soo sad to the core and just beg to ask these terrorists WHY?

Touching article sir .In my life after the 9/11 attack this will be the most drastic attack .This will be called as india's 9/11.What the thing i cant control myself is our guests from various countries are taken as hostages and many of them killed.I pay my sorrow to all the families and friends who lost thier beloved ones in this attack.As far as cricket is concern it is just a game which is more than the lives as warne told in singapore.So the decision made by ECB is not wrong at this point of time.

I am moved in a way I didn't expect.I am an avid reader of cricinfo opinion pieces and blogs and occasionally I get angry enough or passionate enough about something to post a comment myself.Sambit, you make my short term trivial responses seem even more trivial.This is quite simply the most beautiful and moving thing I've ever read on Cricinfo.Indeed it's hard to recall anything I've read anywhere in a long time that so moves me to rethink what is really important.It also puts in sharp relief the "so-called" importance of rabid discussions about "Monkeygate" and "what Katich said to Gambhir".I love cricket.I have loved it since I played every day after school.But there are too many (including some Cricinfo writers) who have used forums like Cricinfo to promote their own agendas, often in a manner which just increases the divides of country and religion.Cricket is supposed to be fun. Life is supposed to be precious.Thank-you for reminding us Sambit. My thoughts are with you and Mumbai.

Deepest commiserations to all people affected by the barbaric actions of these terrorists. Cricket has survived well over 100 years and these events won't affect its future.

While these events are deeply saddening, i do not think cricket, or sport for that matter is a "trivial pursuit." Instead of posing cricket in opposition to issues such as hunger or aids we should view it as a palliative. When a poor or hungry or sick man watches an engrossing cricket match, he temporarily forgets his troubles and is transported to a world beyond them, where only the game matters, and he is able to "trivialize" the problems of his life, at least for a period. In that context i think it is more vital than ever for the games to go on. Just as the Taj must rise from the ashes to defy this madness, sport to must continue and not allow itself to be cowed by these people, and if more security is required than you should damned well provide as much as gets the job done. However if international teams continue to tour India but refuse to tour Pakistan than that will incontrovertibly expose their hypocricy vis-a-vis Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.