Sangakkara returns to Pakistan attack scene

Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara will relive his fateful 2009 journey to Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Friday after returning for the first time since the deadly attack which plunged Pakistan into cricket isolation.

Sangakkara is captaining England’s venerable MCC for four games in Lahore, where he was wounded in a militant attack on the Sri Lankan team that left eight people dead in March 2009.

International cricket is only now returning to Pakistan, which hosted Sri Lanka late last year for its first home Test series since the guns-and-rocket attack.

Sangakkara, 42, suffered shrapnel wounds to his shoulder and narrowly escaped a bullet which whistled past his head as the Sri Lankan players lay pinned down on the floor of the team bus.

But Sangakkara, who is also the president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), said Pakistan was slowly restoring its reputation as a safe destination for visiting teams.

“Security is always a major concern everywhere in the world,” he said after arriving in Lahore on Thursday.

“I think the steps that have been taken in Pakistan over the past few years have instilled a great amount of confidence in the cricketing nations.

“I think slowly and surely that confidence is building up and the more times international sides tour, that message becomes stronger and harder to ignore.”