Ten years on from the attack on Sri Lanka's cricket team bus in Pakistan, Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace explain how they survived.
On 3 March 2009, the Sri Lanka cricket team were in Lahore, Pakistan. It was the third morning of another Test match. Shortly before 09:00 local time, just outside the Gaddafi Stadium, 12 gunmen ambushed them.
I then looked down the front of the bus and I could see the top of a white car which had been driven onto the roundabout to block us. The next thing the bus shook again quite violently. I was half asleep. By the time I moved, everyone was on the floor in the middle of the bus. I just jumped down between the seats.
His white training shirt was soaked in blood. He'd passed out on his seat and the physio and the trainer opposite pulled him down by his legs to get him down on the floor.As Sanga fell to floor Samy fell on top of him and his backside was in the air. He was hit by a bullet, it went in at the top of his thigh.I was crouched down between the seats with my head facing the outside of the bus, I could sort of see back underneath between my legs the guys lying down in the aisle.
Bullets were hitting the bus but everybody was incredibly calm. It was an eerie calm. There were bullets pinging the bus, hitting the glass, but the only voice I could hear was Dilshan's. It was a very distinctive voice. I can still hear it now, I probably will for the rest of my life. It seemed like this all lasted ages but it probably was only seconds, maybe a minute and a half, I don't know. That's the one area that to this day I've never been clear on - how long the whole thing took.Some said it went on for 10 minutes but in reality, it was probably a minute or two at the longest. Time stands still in that sort of situation.
There was a feeling of relief to begin with, for a few of the guys that quickly started to turn into anger, especially when the Pakistani authorities came in and said everything was OK. Quite clearly it wasn't OK. It was like an army hospital.There was a lot of blood. Once we got into the changing room, with medical people coming in, officials coming in, that's when the level of anger and distress among us really started to hit home.
Chris Broad, the match referee, came into our room and his white match shirt was covered in blood. His face was white. He and the umpires, they'd been in a small minivan. We were in a good sized coach, high up and with some kind of protection. They had literally nothing. We were in the dressing room for about five hours. Then they got two big Chinook helicopters to land on the pitch and pick us up. That trip was a little daunting as well, we weren't exactly sure what was happening.
There's a very close bond behind those of us involved in the incident, and that is something you will never lose. That panic and fear we all had.
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