Cricket in South Asia at stake : Sohail Tanvir

Pakistani cricketers Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir fear the Mumbai terror attack may end up making the entire South Asian region a pariah in international cricket.

Both players returned home early on Saturday morning from Mumbai via Bahrain insisting they were relieved to be back home after spending some terrifying moments in Mumbai.

"If things continue like this I don't see many teams being willing to come and play in our region. There is an acute need to face this problem jointly by the affected countries," Tanvir said at the airport.

"What happened is very sad and needs to be condemned. But the incident also shows that Pakistan is not the only country in this region facing problems from terrorism," he added.

Tanvir said Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka were all affected by terrorism and they needed to have a common strategy to deal with it or else cricket activities would be badly affected in the region.

"Until now teams were avoiding Pakistan and Sri Lanka because of security situation, but now it is sad that India could also face same problems. This would be really bad for cricketers as India is the main hub of cricket in the world," he said.

Akmal echoed the view insisting that countries in the region must have a common plan to battle terrorism so that cricket activities can continue.

"Life has to go on. But we also need to have a joint strategy to convince teams it is safe to play in Pakistan, Sri Lanka or India," he said.

The two Pakistani players were in Mumbai for the Champions League tournament when the terror attacks took place and both described the events as the worst of their life.

"We were confined to our rooms and kept on receiving calls and messages from our worried relatives and friends. It was very scary knowing what was going on and we just wanted to return home as soon as possible," Kamran said.

The wicketkeeper felt that although the tragedy in Mumbai cast a shadow over India's scheduled tour to Pakistan but the series needed to be held on schedule.

India is scheduled to visit Pakistan from January 4 to play a full Test series but with diplomatic relations already souring between the two countries after the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan Cricket Board officials admit the situation is not very good and chances of the series now taking place are slim.