BCCI heaves sigh of relief

By the time you read this report, Kevin Pietersen sould be safely home with Jessica Taylor in London. He could well be telling his wife that he and his men were guarded like the residents of the Buckingham Palace during their 15-day Test tour of India. The England team’s passage to India has been quite eventful. On Tuesday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) heaved a sigh of relief. It was a litmus test for the Board more than the players and the BCCI is relieved that the tour is over.

“We had a reputation to protect. We could not afford to send out a message that India is an unsafe destination. We went all out to provide the best possible security to the English team,” Ratnakar Shetty, the CAO  of the BCCI, said. The Board is believed to have spent over Rs 1 crore on the security.

The security provided to the Englishmen was unprecedented in the annals of Indian cricket history. About 3000 policemen, that included commandos from different groups of the state governments in Tamil Nadu and Punjab, besides a number of sniffer dogs, were employed for the protection of the team which returned to India after abruptly cutting short the seven-match ODI series following the terror attacks in Mumbai. They came back only on the assurance of an exhaustive security blanket.

Apart from the police personnel, there were sharpshooters, anti-sabotage check team, bomb detection teams, horse mounted policemen and hordes of dogs protecting the ground and the hotel. “That is a massive security,” said Bob Nicholls, a South Africa-based expert, who was previously involved in providing security to cricket teams in Pakistan. Bob reveals that cost of such security would also be high. “We don’t see such security unless on extraordinary situations. I believe such a cover would have been there if the Champions Trophy had gone ahead last year in Pakistan. It should result in high cost,” he said.

Shetty said the Board understood the demands of England and had no complaints. “We should take into account the situation under which the tour was conducted. We had a reputation to protect and we have got all the support and encouragements from the Government of India. We’re relieved that we achieved that.”

However, there is a perception that the Indian Board should demand such a massive security cover whenever the national team tours another country. “We think there should be similar kind of security for the Indian team also,” a Board official told DNA, revealing that the hospitality provided to the visiting teams in India cannot be matched with the hospitality given to the Indian teams in other countries. “Many times,” he said, “the Indian teams are not put up in quality hotels. The rooms they are booked in some hotels of England are not big enough.”

An ECB spokesman said that his board would consider the request. “It was an extraordinary situation we were in. We were happy with the security and hospitality provided to us in Chennai and Mohali. We’ll do what is expected of us when India tour our country,” England Board’s communications manager Colin Gibson said. An Indian team will be in England as early as June 2009 when MS Dhoni & Co. will be there to defend the Twenty20 World Cup.