Sri Lanka’s finest practitioners of left-arm seam, Chaminda Vaas and left-arm spin, Rangana Herath expressed sadness at the terror attack on Churches inColombo, Negombo and Batticaloa on Easter Sunday.
Vaas (45), who has taken 761 international wickets and Herath, 525 wickets, arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday to be part of a Cricket for Excellence programme organised by Jwala Singh’s Mumbai Cricket Club in conjunction with the Mitsui Shoji T-20 tournament for five local teams.
Talking to the media at the Police Gymkhana at Marine Lines on Tuesday, Vaas said: "So sad to see what happened last Sunday. We never thought these kind of things will happen in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a lovely country and hospitable. It’s so tragic to see such things happen. We need to rebuild. We can rebuild churches and hotels, but we cannot bring the lives back. I am sure the Sri Lankan government and the people will be very united and make sure that we stick together.’’
When asked if Sri Lanka, because of terror attack, would face a situation wherein international teams would refuse to travel to the island, Vaas said: "These attacks can happen anywhere in the World. It happened in New Zealand as well. These people doesn’t have one place, they can attack anywhere in the World. I am pretty sure things will return to normal.’’
While expressing his deepest sympathies to the people affected by the attack, Herath said: We are a united country. We have a panicky situation, but we have to be strong.’’
