Indian Premier League (IPL) organizers have vowed that security will be “watertight” for the remainder of the tournament after two bomb blasts at a Bangalore cricket stadium left 14 people injured and panicked fans before a match.
“We are talking to police and government officials about security arrangements,” IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters yesterday. “We are feeling quite confident.”
The crudely made bombs went off outside Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday, an hour before an IPL match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Mumbai Indians. Mumbai eventually won the match, which was played to a packed stadium and an hour behind schedule.
Modi said two extra layers of security would be added outside the already heavily guarded venues for the few remaining regular season matches and the semifinals and final.
“It will be a little inconvenient for the spectators, but we’re leaving no stone unturned,” Modi said. “Security will be watertight.”
According to initial investigations, the explosives used in the blasts were locally made and of low intensity, said M.R. Poojar, a senior local police official. He also said that of the 14 injured, only three remained in hospital yesterday morning.
Poojar said it was too early to say who was responsible for the blasts. The sound of the blasts, which occurred as thousands of spectators were entering the stadium, sent nervous crowds running in panic.
Bangalore is set to host some of next year’s cricket World Cup matches. The International Cricket Council said it was too early to comment on the attack.
Yesterday two sets of IPL regular season matches were scheduled — one in New Delhi between the Delhi Daredevils and the Deccan Chargers and another in the north Indian hill town of Dharmsala between Kings XI Punjab and the Chennai Super Kings. Sports venues in India have faced tight security amid fears that Islamist radical groups may target them.
Up to 80 foreign players from across the world are contracted to the eight IPL teams.
The second edition of the IPL was moved abroad to South Africa last year because of concern that the security forces would be too stretched by a clash of dates between the federal elections and the lucrative Twenty20 cricket tournament.
In late 2008, the first edition of the Twenty20 Champions League — featuring the leading provincial teams from five countries — was canceled in the wake of terror attacks in Mumbai which left 164 dead.
Neighboring Pakistan, which sees near-daily bombings from militants, has been off limits to foreign cricket teams since gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team’s bus in Lahore last year, killing six police officers and the van’s driver.
The Pakistan Cricket Board was forced to organize its home series in the United Arab Emirates and will play Australia later this year in England.
Cricket Australia said yesterday that it was closely monitoring the security situation in India, but it was too early to discuss ramifications for next year’s World Cup, while New Zealand Cricket still plans to tour India in November despite the recent attack.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS