BCCI books entire hotel for cricketers' security

Chennai: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has gone to the extreme of booking the entire five-star hotel for the safe conduct of the first Test between India and England here on December 11-15.

The magnificent Taj Coromondel has been reserved exclusively for BCCI for the duration of the Test match and flashes the sign of SOLD OUT on its website.

The hotel, bearing the same emblem of the Taj, which has been in news lately for all the wrong reasons, would not entertain any other guest during the Test match even if the highly-priced rooms remain unoccupied.

The 213-room hotel, with an average price of $600 (Dh2,200) for each room, would make the board poorer by $1 million but it would appear that the hosts have no option.

Restrictions

According to the arrangement, only those recommended by the board will be able to stay in the hotel.

The security guidelines have been forced upon them by security adviser Reg Dickason of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) who visited Chennai a few days ago to make his observations.

Besides making the hotel foolproof, a five-tier security arrangement has been worked upon for the Indian team. Indians would be given a cover by the National Security Guard, the country's topmost commando unit - a measure which has also been extended to the English team.

Plainclothes policemen would guard the two teams during their stay in Chennai for eight days.

The hotel, on its part, would provided some additional measures for the Indian team. The hotel has its own security agency, which would be pressed into service for the protection of the two teams.

- Cricket News

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