While the IPL's second edition hinges on the security issue, a report of the inaugural edition reveals that all was not right in this critical aspect
While the IPL's second edition hinges on the security issue, a report of the inaugural edition reveals that all was not right in this critical aspect
THE Lahore terrorist attack has made security a buzzword in international cricket. And as the Sri Lankan cricketers recover in Colombo from physical and mental scars of Tuesday's attacks, doubts of the second edition of the Indian Premier League taking off are increases with each passing moment.
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Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement over the Indian government's inability to provide security for the tournament due to polls during the same period has put a big question mark over the event.
Going by the review report of the inaugural IPL, there are a lot issues on this critical aspect which need to be addressed for the championship that captured the imagination of cricket lovers the world over last year.
Dressing rooms
The security gaffes that existed in the inaugural event have been highlighted in the report presented by the International Management Group (IMG), the event management company involved in the organisation of the IPL.
The 109-page report was distributed to the franchisees during the player auction held in Goa last month. The report talks about security inadequacies of the April 18 to June 1, 2008 event. Under a sub-head 'Stadium safety and security', the report stresses security concerns in the dressing room area. It states: "The security around dressing room, viewing area, dugouts ranged from poor to appalling. This is a huge concern as this area should be absolutely secure as it is the team's sanctum. The reality however was that the media, police officers, cricket officials, even members of the public regularly found their way to these areas. This cannot be allowed to continue and must be addressed as a matter of priority. From recent conversations held, we are aware that the ICC ACSU (Anti Corruption & Security Unit) is extremely concerned about this."
Hotel security
Under 'Team security', the report states: "We found that security provided at some hotels was adequate but others it was almost non-existent. Basic procedure related to access control, search procedure and housing players on the same floor were often disregarded and on many occasions the security personnel deployed to provide cordons or to secure specific areas were either poorly briefed or unable to perform the task. It was also noticeable that in some hotels much of the security equipment that was in place (CCTV, metal detectors) was not working or not correctly used."
Police escorts?
The organisers were not happy with the security provided during team travel as well. "The use of police escorts to provide security to team buses was not consistent and varied greatly from venue to venue. It is reasonable that some variance in methodology will exist due to different requirements in different cities, for example, it is very difficult to provide a traffic escort in Mumbai simply because of the nature of traffic in the city but the minimum requirement needs to be agreed and adhered to.
"In Chandigarh, there was no escort whatsoever from the local police when the teams were moving from the airport to the hotel. Match day escorts were provided by the Mohali force as the stadium falls under their jurisdiction. It was noticeable in most cases that escort provided to the team varied considerably from match day to non-match day. This needs to be addressed as security requirements remains the same."
Clearly, everyone involved in the greatest cricket show of 2008 have a job and challenge on hand if Edition Two of the IPL has to be success on the safety front.
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