Innocence lost but cricket will resume: Steve Waugh

India has been robbed of its innocence by the ghastly terror strike in Mumbai but cricket in the country will resume after a short break as it is a way of life and a symbol of hope for the people there, feels former Australian skipper Steve Waugh.

"My gut feeling is that cricket will see an interruption in the short term but business will resume as normal shortly afterwards," Waugh, who has a long association with a charity for children of leprosy patients in India, said.

"The game of cricket in India is a way of life and a symbol of hope and, as such, it has the ability to restore faith and instill confidence," he wrote in a column for 'The Daily Telegraph'.

Waugh said abandoning of an ODI series by England and postponement of the Twenty20 Champions League were short-term reactions towards the tragedy that left over 150 people dead and everything will limp back to normalcy after a while albeit
with heightened security and skepticism.

"Perversely, after such a major incident India will probably be a much safer place to be than previously, for security will reach unprecedented levels at airports, five- star hotels and places where people congregate. But such is human nature that confidence will be hard to restore in the short term," he explained.

"Time is a great healer but, much like 9/11, life on the subcontinent will never be the same. The need for security will be paramount and this will affect all facets of life," he added.

The former Aussie skipper felt the terror attack was just one of the crisis facing the game's administrators, who are already battling to save cricket in strife-torn Pakistan and politically volatile Zimbabwe.