Chris Broad a bloody hero in Pakistan cricket ambush

Bristol-born former Gloucestershire and England cricketer Chris Broad threw himself on top of an injured umpire in Lahore as terrorists peppered the Sri Lankan team convoy with bullets.

He acted as a human shield to protect Pakistani official Ahsan Raza who was hit when the vehicles carrying the team was ambushed by gunmen firing machine guns, leaving the Englishman 'fearing for his life'.

Mr Broad, who is now an International Cricket Council match referee, was travelling with fellow officials to the Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore yesterday morning.

The 51-year-old, a former opening batsman for both England and Gloucestershire CCC, said his bus was halted for "seven to 10 minutes" while it was pelted with bullets.

The driver of the bus was killed in the attack, which meant the match officials were stranded in the gunfire which claimed the life of six policemen and a civilian.

Mr Raza was last night in a critical condition in a Lahore hospital.

Speaking from Dubai, where Mr Broad and umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis travelled after yesterday's gun drama, Mr Broad described feeling like a "sitting duck" and admitted he was lucky to escape.

Mr Broad, who was born in Knowle and went to Colston's School, said in a radio interview: "There were five of us in the back of the van all lying on floor just listening to the crack of bullets going on around us and hitting the van.

"Every time you heard a crack, you just thought, 'This bullet's for me'. We were unaware of what was going on outside the bus, just that our van was hit several times.

"Fortunately for myself, Simon Taufel, Steve Davis, Peter Manuel and Nadeem Ghauri (the third umpire) none of the bullets hit us. Unfortunately for Ahsan Raza and Abdul Sami, our liaison officer, both got hit.

"The terrorists had also killed our driver, so we were stranded. Clearly, the terrorists targeted the drivers to try and get the bus stationary. We were sitting ducks."

The match officials had been travelling in a second bus behind the Sri Lanka team when the attacks occurred about half a mile from the stadium. The Sri Lanka team bus also came under gunfire – with seven players and assistant coach Paul Farbrace injured – but was able to drive away from the incident after shots at their driver missed.

Mr Broad, who scored more than 21,000 runs in his first-class cricket career and whose son Stuart is a member of the England side touring the West Indies, said there had been no indication of trouble as they travelled to the ground just as they had the previous two days of the Test match.

"Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The roads were blocked off as normal and there were lots of police around," he added.

"When we got to a roundabout about half a mile from the ground, things changed. Initially there was what I would describe as a popping sound. It didn't seem to me that there was rifle fire.

"The local umpire (Ahsan Raza) said to me, 'Get on the floor, get on the floor'. So we all dived on the floor and that is where we stayed for seven to 10 minutes while everything went on around us. It was just a very surreal situation for all of us."

Mr Broad said he raised security concerns before travelling to Pakistan, contacting both the ICC and PCB about his fears.

He said: "I got assurances from the Pakistan Cricket Board that security would be as tight as it was for the one-day series. This is an unthinkable thing to have happened."