In terror’s shadow

Those attempting to make political statements on sporting fields may have changed with time,but the shadow of the gun on a sporting field — a ballooning shadow that feeds off paranoia — steadily follows most big-ticket events worldwide,and almost all on Indian shores: The Badminton World Championships last year,the upcoming Hockey World Cup,the IPL and the Commonwealth Games later in the year. There’s the Cricket World Cup next year,and sooner or later security concerns will take over.

The sporting folk — lead actors at the heart of these spectacles — have been largely surrounded by ambient images of uniformed,gun-wielding security personnel,while travel advisories and security protocols are consulted as carefully as itineraries and practice schedules. Do they see the omnipresent cops as a reassuring sign? Or are they just added irritants as they attempt to get into the zone.

Constant threats

The recent bomb blast in Pune,coupled with a terror threat issued by an Al-Qaeda fringer,may have forced foreign associations to think twice before sending their respective contingents to India.

At the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in New Delhi,people with real rifles outnumber those with air-rifles. The competition,which is the first test event in the run-up to October’s Commonwealth Games,started this Thursday,and Scottish shooter Graham Rudd said he was surprised,but pleased,by the high level of security. “I was expecting security to be tight,but I wasn’t expecting gunmen placed within the range facility. Everything has been well organised so far. It’s good to know that the organisers are taking terrorist threats seriously enough to put in such security measures. I am looking forward to the Commonwealth Games,” he says.

“Our team manager had a meeting with someone within the police force in Scotland just to get some advice about what to do. We were advised not to leave the hotel complex without arranging security beforehand and avoid going out in small groups. So it’s just taking basic safety measures you take in any country you are not used to.”

Security fears

When the German Bakery came crashing down in her hometown Pune,badminton player Aditi Mutatkar felt the urge to defy her parents’ instructions and had promptly stepped out of her home to drive around the city. “As sportspersons we ought to be more fearless,because sporting heroes are looked up to as examples. If you have to convince foreigners that India is safe,you need to behave as normal as possible. We can’t be scared all the time… the fear will kill you before the blast does,” she says. Just six months ago,Mutatkar had watched a largely speculative front-page headline scare away English shuttlers ahead of the world championships in Hyderabad. Even as the eight-member English contingent scooted out on the first available flight,some other shuttlers from European nations had paused to check around,and finally opted to stay back. “The French team had an English coach,and I remember him saying that they had felt absolutely safe and secure with the arrangements at the end of the week,” she recalls.

As athletes,it is best to not clutter your mind with these worries and go by what the government and security officials say,says senior shuttler Aravind Bhat. “The Hyderabad threats were a rumour,and not reliable. We went simply by the police guarantees. But it showed how alarmist reportage can have a cascading effect.”

Though Badminton England had expressed its regrets over the pull-out after the event went off without incident,the holes in the draw left by the English shuttlers and the accompanying ruckus had diverted plenty of attention from the actual competition.

Of course,not everyone is convinced by reassurances,not when a bomb has exploded right outside your hotel door. An all-India amateur golf event was underway when the Pune bomb went off last Saturday,and a bunch of young Thai golfers staying at the ‘O’ Hotel,right opposite German Bakery,flew back the very next morning.

Organisers tried to persuade the Thais that they were safe and that security had been beefed up — and even thrown the cynic’s ultimate comfort line at them: ‘Pune was the safest place in the world as lightning seldom struck the same spot twice’. The Thai manager,though,explained that the youngsters had spoken to their families who had instructed them to return,and that while he understood the organisers’ point of view,he wanted to take no chances.

Boxed in

Twenty-year-old Sanjay Singh was part of the seven-member squad to Pakistan for the Benazir Bhutto Invitational Boxing Tournament that was the first Indian team after the Mumbai attacks to cross the border for any championship. A day after the team arrived in Karachi,a suicide bomber killed 88 during a volleyball tournament in Peshawar. “We didn’t know about the attack till we saw pictures in some papers,but my parents were concerned. Once we reached Karachi,we were given high-level security and only organisers were allowed in the stadium,” Sanjay says.

The Bhutto stadium in Karachi was guarded by over 5,000 security men. “Inside the stadium,we felt like prisoners. But once we started our practice and bouts,it was back to normal. Yes,we missed the crowd… the intensity of the crowd often makes us perform better. If nobody is allowed to watch the games,then it is sad for the players as well as the spectators,” says Sanjay.

Akhil Kumar,who burst into the limelight at the Beijing Olympics,believes tight security can be organised without being obstrusive. “At the Athens Olympics,security was almost minimal inside the Olympic village. They had provided three-tier security outside the village,but inside,everything was managed by volunteers. Someone in the police told us that the verification process for the volunteers had gone on for almost two years.”

Big year

With a series of events planned over the next 12 months,India’s ability to conduct sport in these times of terror will be under the spotlight; just as at the Chennai Open at the start of the year,where organisers had concerns far beyond issues relating to tennis. Terror attacks in the country and a Davis Cup forfeiture due to security reasons had left the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association feeling a few jitters. “Last year (2009),the Chennai Open was held a little over a month after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Back then,we laid special emphasis on security even though we didn’t have much time. For the 2010 event,the security aspect had been planned since October 2009 and it was definitely much higher than previous years,” says CBN Reddy,honorary secretary of the TNTA.

“Our security committee,which included ex-director of CBI RK Raghavan,met every 15 days and reviewed security,discussed each entrance and the hotel security. We knew it had to be 100 per cent,” he says,adding that all bases were checked,double-checked,and then checked once more just to be safe.

The Davis Cup tie that had been forfeited by Australia in the early part of 2009 was scheduled to be held at the same venue,and Reddy said that had played a part in the increased precautions. “After the Australians didn’t turn up despite security checks by international agencies,we had to make sure we convinced everyone that the city was absolutely safe. We had three-tier security including the TN police and the TNTA security and we had close-circuit TVs that were being monitored constantly. We briefed players on the steps they needed to take,we told them not to go out without telling us. Also,players from the US and Israel were given more security. Compared to the last few years,the police gave us twice the number of security personnel.”

Murali Kartik,who was part of the Indian team’s historic tour to Pakistan in the summer of 2004,sums up the situation: “No place can be considered safe these days. You just have to deal with it.”

(Inputs: Kabir Mandrekar,Nitin Sharma,Vinayak Padmadeo)