IPL allays player boycott threat

By Simon Austin

Modi believes there will be no player withdrawals from this season's IPL

The threat of mass withdrawals from the Indian Premier League seems to have been allayed after organisers gave new commitments over security.

Players' unions have received assurances that the IPL security plan will be implemented at each venue.

This follows last week's assessment that a reported threat from an al-Qaeda cell was "not credible".

The news would "certainly improve confidence in security", cricketers' chief Tim May told BBC Sport.

Security concerns were threatening to overshadow the third season of the IPL, which begins in Mumbai on 12 March.

May had warned there could be a host of withdrawals, while Australian legend Shane Warne and England batsman Ravi Bopara admitted they were having second thoughts about attending.

This is very good news for us - I don't think there will be any withdrawals at all Lalit Modi IPL commissioner

Bopara was due to fly out to join his team, the King's XI, at the weekend but delayed his departure and is still in England.

Things now seem to have changed for May and the individual player associations though, after they received a commitment that the tournament security plan would be implemented at the individual venues.

May said: "This is a significant step forward. The more information you provide the players with, the greater the likelihood that they will attend the event."

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told BBC Sport he was delighted that "everybody is on the same page about the security arrangements".

He added: "This is very good news for us - I don't think there will be any withdrawals at all.

"Already a lot of the players are on planes on their way to India and will arrive in the next few days.

"Security is very important to us. We have not had to change our plans, I think it is more a case of the players now understanding them.

"I think they are more comfortable with the plans being implemented."

Security fears reached a peak when Asia Times online published a message reportedly from the 313 Brigade, an operational arm of Al-Qaeda, that threatened the IPL, Commonwealth Games and Hockey World Cup.

This followed a threat against Australian players competing in the IPL from the right-wing Hindu group Shiv Sena.

With Modi refusing to discuss security arrangements with the national players' associations, they commissioned their own security report by expert Reg Dickason.

This highlighted two main concerns - the validity of the threat from the 313 Brigade and whether the IPL's security plan would be implemented at each venue.

Both Dickason and several national governments are now satisfied the specific threat was not credible, while all but one of the IPL venues - which will host matches later in the tournament - has committed to the security plan.

May said: "We have a significant amount of information we did not have previously, which will assist players making far more informed decisions about whether to go or not.

"We haven't reached utopia yet, but the new information has given us greater confidence. Last week we were operating in an information vacuum."

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