Cricket World Cup organisers said on Thursday that no changes had been made to security arrangements after the Indian government's warning of a possible militant attack on the showpiece event. Just before the February 19-April 2 tournament reached the halfway mark, the government issued an alert on Wednesday over a possible attack on the tournament being played in 13 venues across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, attracting hundreds of thousands of fans.
"We don't comment on security issues. It's completely under the jurisdiction of the government. They have taken steps to take care of everything," tournament director Ratnakar Shetty told Reuters on Thursday. A Tamil Nadu Cricket Association official said there has been no recent beefing-up of security measures in and around the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai which is staging India's big match with the West Indies on March 20.
"We have made comprehensive security arrangements right from the warm-up matches and there has not been any change to that. It remains the same," the TNCA official said. The World Cup so far has seen no repetition of that sort but has not been without incidents either.
In India, ticket-seeking fans have been baton-charged by the police while the West Indies' team bus was stoned in Mirpur, apparently by a handful of fans disappointed by Bangladesh's defeat by Darren Sammy and his men. Suraj Dandeniya, Sri Lanka's tournament director of security, said the teams could concentrate solely on cricket in the island nation without bothering about their security. "We have taken into account (what happened in Bangladesh) but we feel our security levels are good enough to prevent something like that from happening here in Sri Lanka," Dandeniya told Reuters by telephone.
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