Melbourne: Cricket Australia (CA) may be forced to pull out of next month’s tour of Sri Lanka if the Julia Gillard-led government issues a negative edict over British television documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’.
The one-hour Channel 4 documentary shows “horrific” footage of how the Sri Lankan troops had tortured Tamil separatists during the final stages of the 30-year civil war in the country.
The documentary has sparked outrage in Australia after it was shown on the ABC’s Four Corners.
CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) had conducted a joint security inspection of Sri Lanka almost a month ago and were both satisfied with the outcome.
However, ACA chief executive Paul Marsh confirmed that he had been contacted by some players who were upset by the apparent conduct of the Sri Lankan government, based on what they saw in the documentary.
“The process here, as it always is, is that we talk to the government about it. The Four Corners program probably raised some issues that we weren’t necessarily aware of, and as we’ve done in Zimbabwe in the past . . . with these type of moral issues, we do take direction from the government,” The Age quoted Marsh, as saying.
“The government didn’t allow us to go there [Zimbabwe] on our last [scheduled] tour. If the government doesn’t give us that directive then our position has always been that we will proceed unless it’s unsafe,” he added.
On the other hand, CA chief spokesman Peter Young said that the board is content with the security arrangements provided by Sri Lanka Cricket.
“Obviously, we’re aware of the tragic circumstances that that country’s been going through for several decades with their terrible civil war. My understanding is they’ve reached a point where that civil war is no longer active,” Young said.
“We’re not judges of the rights and wrongs of both sides during that conflict,” he added. (ANI)