Thank you, Sri Lanka!

Terror returned to the capital on Tuesday, claiming 12 lives and injuring dozens in a suicide blast timed with unnerving precision. The attack came just hours before Pakistan's first ODI against Sri Lanka in neighbouring Rawalpindi, and as two major international events — the Inter-Parliamentary Speakers' Conference and the Margalla Dialogue — unfolded in Islamabad. No wonder it is being seen as a deliberate attempt to rattle national confidence and project the image of a country still vulnerable to instability.

Panic briefly rippled when it emerged that the Sri Lankan players were planning to head back home due to safety concerns. But after high-level coordination between officials on both sides, Sri Lanka's cricket board confirmed that the tour would continue — a welcoming gesture of trust and support. Their apprehension was understandable considering that it was the Sri Lankan cricket team that came under fire in Lahore in March 2009 during a terrorist incident — a day that marked one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan's sporting history. That attack abruptly ended international cricket in the country for nearly ten years.

Only after years of patient diplomacy and repeated assurances did Pakistan finally manage to bring the game home. Pakistan and its cricket fans thank the Sri Lankan team for standing by the country at a time when doubt could easily have prevailed. Cricket has long stood as Pakistan's most visible symbol of resilience. Every match played on home soil carries the weight of a nation's reputation, rebuilt painstakingly after years. Tuesday's blast sought to undermine that progress. It failed.

The series continues, and so does the spirit of cricket. Sri Lanka's solidarity will be remembered not only as a gesture of sportsmanship but as a moment when cricket once again rose above chaos.