KOLKATA: With West Bengal already politically charged up as Assembly elections are round the corner and India playing their first match in Kolkata at the ongoing T20 World Cup, a beefed up security is expected to be in place on Sunday.
It could be even twice or thrice the previous arrangement made for the Group stage matches. Besides, the final electoral list following the special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal will also be published on Saturday which in turn could add to the worries of the cops.
"The deployment of forces will be twice or even thrice of the arrangement made for the past matches," a senior cop said. He said the additional security would be in place as India will be playing at the venue, which is already sold out. "We haven't received any request for special arrangement from the Cricket Association of Bengal in the wake of publication of the final electoral list on Saturday. Anyway, the strength of security personnel will be decided on Saturday. We are ready to counter any situation," added the cop.
Notably, the final electoral list with 60 lakh-plus names with 'adjudication marks' will also bear the names of deleted electors, with 'deleted' against their names. After publication of the final list, supplementary lists will also come out in phases.
In the past, the venue has witnessed unsavoury incidents. Sachin Tendulkar's unfortunate run out in the first match of the Asian Test Championship in February 1999 is one of them. Infuriated with the mode of dismissal, the spectators pelted bottles and other objects at Shoaib Akhtar, who collided with Tendulkar leading to his run out, as he returned to his fielding position in the deep. Tendulkar's appeal might have pacified the crowd but all hell broke loose within 30 minutes of the play on the last day, prompting the police to forcibly vacate the ground filled with thousands of people.
Before that, the 1996 ODI World Cup semifinal between India and Sri Lanka had to be abandoned as the crowd turned violent with the co-hosts on the verge of losing the contest.
