Lahore incident or not, GOI wouldn't be able to spare police forces for IPL. Lahore incident only added to apprehensions in outside media and few boards and players about security in subcontinent.
IPL cannot survive without Indian public involvement. There is so much passion about cricket especially 20-20.
I agree but only to an extent. Change in IPL venue has nothing to do with Lahore attack. Why? Because we dont see ourselves in the same light as Pakistan. Though Lahore raised apprehensions, but not just for India. Ripples were felt as far as New Zealand, where security was ramped immensely. However no cricketer sighted security concern over IPL in India.
Had the elections not been there we would have staged it no doubt. Or even if elections took place in some states, IPL would have happened. But this is different.
800 million voters will take part in the elections, at about
40000 polling booths across India.. Sheer numbers are staggering for any country, highest for any country in the world. Nearly 7 lac paramilitary personalle will be deployed and another 1 lac kept on stand by.
Now juggling IPL with GE is not a wise move at all. I hold Modi responsible, for "intentionally" ignoring the fact that GE would happen around the same time as the IPL. And now he complains. Despite all this, GOI had assured security if IPL could shift a few days here an there, but no he wouldnt compromise. And here we are.
But I'm rather optimistic, we will keep the spirit of "cricket" alive in the subcontinent. We cannot let cricket become "white man's game" once again. And we also have the Commonwealth Games next year, and opefully 2011 World Cup . So all is not lost.