Basically, any place with a mass gathering is an attractive target. So why have sporting events been spared such attacks? Surely the crowds and publicity would make attacking a sports arena appealing to terrorists.
Indian sports writer Tapan Joshi believes the answer lies in an 'unwritten rule', sacred amongst terrorists. Joshi says this rule specifies that sporting teams are not to be targeted in an attack and that this is the reason Indian sports people have so far come through this era of terror unscathed.
However, times may be changing. Recently the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan came under attack and a few years ago a bomb went off in a Pakistani hotel where New Zealand cricketers were staying. Now the Togo Soccer team has been targeted.
But it was at the 1972 Munich Olympics that the world got its first real glimpse of terror in sport. Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic Team were slaughtered by a Palestinian group known as the Black September. This horrific display of anarchy revolutionised security measures and reminded the world that no event was safe from attack.
In an article written in India's Ahmedabad Mirror, Joshi reminds his readers that India is about to host the Field Hockey World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, and in 2011 the ICC Cricket World Cup. He raises his concerns over security and the possible repercussions of a terrorist attack.
Well-Being Australia chairman and cricket chaplain, Mark Tronson believes sports people are far from immune to either terrorist attacks or accidents.
Horrific accidents have taken the lives of many sportsmen in the past. In 1956 the entire Afghani field hockey team died in a plane crash en route to the Melbourne Olympics and in February 1958, a plane crash took the lives of the Manchester United soccer team in Munich.
Freak accidents can happen at any time. A few years ago, a young New South Wales field hockey star stopped his car to buy a hamburger from across a busy street on his way home from training. He bought the burger and was returning to his car when he was struck by a vehicle and killed. There is even now a website dedicated to 'Celebrities' in automobile accidents – famous people killed in car accidents'.
So what is the point of all this? It is ignorant to believe that high profile athletes will be miraculously protected from the trials and tests of life, even if the best security measures and precautions are undertaken. No-one can be set apart from life's comings and goings.
Mark Tronson says that in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 verse 48, Jesus clearly sets out the parameters that life's dispositions are on a level playing field. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous.
It would appear that the circumstances of our lives are based on a whole range of factors. Some are the result of our every day decisions and others determined by factors for which we have no control over.
There is an interesting passage in Luke 13 verses 1-5 where Jesus addresses the question of why disastrous things happen to ordinary people. His response was that no one person is better or worse than anyone else and that we are all headed for death. Jesus said that repentance will lead us to eternal life.
No one is exempt from tragedy. Not famous people, or those who are good leaders and most certainly, not sports people.