Melbourne: Tennis Australia has claimed that
the security plan for this October`s Commonwealth Games in New
Delhi was stolen last year and it was one of the reasons for
its decision to pull out of the Davis Cup tie against India
last year.
TA said it cited the theft of the security plan as one of
the three reasons for backing out of the tie scheduled in May
in Chennai last year.
"Tennis Australia commissioned two security firms to
assess the risk of its players competing in the tie in Chennai
and cited the stolen plans as justification for its decision
to withdraw from the tournament," the `Sydney Morning Herald`
reported.
The Tennis Australia report does not specify who stole
the security blueprints for the Games but the newspaper quoted
a source as saying that, "It forced the organisers to rejig
the whole security plans for the Games."
TA President Geoff Pollard said the other factors that
contributed to the decision included the general elections in
India and the "escalated activity by Tamil Tigers in Sri
Lanka".
"Al-Qaeda are everywhere in the world but they are a
slightly higher risk in India than in other places. If the
stolen plans had been the only risk, I think we would have
gone to Chennai but we had the two extra risks of the election
and the Tamils in the dying weeks of their last fight,"
Pollard said.
Australian Commonwealth Games Association Chief Executive
Perry Crosswhite said he did come across reports of thefts but
didn`t know which documents had been stolen.
"I`m not aware what specifically happened but I am aware
of reports from India that Commonwealth Games plans had been
lost, or stolen," he said.
"We are on constant alert of what might or might not be
going on in Delhi. We rely on information from the
Commonwealth Games Association, our own Commonwealth
Government, the High Commission in India and we have a whole
security team of people working on this," added ACGA president
Sam Coffa.
The TA`s internal report had questioned the security plan
for the Davis Cup based on the assessment.
"In or about mid April 2009, ITF subsequently was
provided with Risk Assessment undertaken by its Security
Consultants (Olive Group) and the same was forwarded to TA ...
Such report gave cause for concern for TA in that:
"(a) some of the persons/and or organisations consulted
by the Olive Group, namely representatives of the All India
Tennis Association, Tamil Nadu Tennis Association and Security
Committee and the Park Hotel, all had obvious interests that
the Tie take place in Chennai.
"(b) it appeared that the only `independent` person
consulted was the Chennai Commissioner of Police;
"(c) what was provided was the Olive Group`s Assessment
of the Security Plan, not the Security Plan itself;
"(d) it did not appear to provide for an adequate exit
strategy to remove the team from Chennai should a terrorist
attack take place, and;
"(e) the assurances given to the Olive Group`s
representatives with respect to the security provided appeared
to have been given to them verbally and not in writing."
"Both assessments found that there was a credible risk of
terrorist attacks within the Chennai region at or about the
time the said Davis Cup Tie was to take place," TA said in its
submission.
The ITF had fined Australia only USD 10,000 for
forfeiting the tie.
PTI
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