Players' Association 'not against IPL'

The chief executive of the South African Cricketers' Association [Saca], Tony Irish, has denied that their concerns over security issues in India were in any way an attempt to oppose the Indian Premier League (IPL).

South African players - as well as those from Australia, New Zealand and England - that are due to participate in the Twenty20 competition starting on Friday, have expressed fears over security for the tournament and Fica [Federation of International Cricketers' Associations], of which Saca and all the other player associations are members, were tasked with reviewing the tournament's security plans.

Lalit Modi, the chairman of the IPL, accused Fica of seizing on security issues as a way to dictate to and "arm-twist" the IPL, and said he refused to recognise or share tournament security details with them.

But Irish told SuperCricket on Monday that Fica and the players' associations' involvement was in the interests of both the players and the IPL.

"The IPL has tended to make our concerns regarding security into an IPL versus Fica issue, but it's not that at all. This is not about either side winning or losing, it's about safety and security of players and teams. And we've simply followed the same thorough process as we normally do. We want the same thing as the IPL does, namely a successful and safe event. We hope this will be the case.

"So our objectives were to obtain details of the security plan and as much information as possible and then get an independent specialist to review these plans. Our job is to provide the players with the relevant information to assist them to make as informed a decision as possible," Irish said.

Irish added that those objectives had now been achieved and even though their security consultants are not yet 100% happy with the arrangements, the process has resulted in most of the foreign players contracted to the IPL winging their way over to India over the weekend.

When Modi refused to provide security information to Fica, the players' associations were quick to turn to their own boards, who were given the plans but were not handling security issues because the IPL is essentially a domestic Indian tournament.

It also helped that Nicholls Steyn and Associates (NSA) will be handling security for the IPL because Fica are used to dealing with them and they handle security issues for Cricket South Africa. NSA were also happy to fully cooperate with Reg Dickason's Eastern Star International, the independent advisors appointed by the players' associations.

The two major security risks identified by Dickason were a threat made by the 313 Brigade, a known terrorist organisation with links to Al-Qaeda, and the lack of formal commitment from the Indian authorities to fully implement the NSA security plan at all airports, roads, hotels and stadia in the many cities that will host IPL games.

After extensive investigation, the 313 Brigade threat has turned out to not be credible, while the product of NSA holding numerous meetings with local officials at each of the IPL venues is that they have now agreed to implement the NSA security plan, while NSA has also been consulting regularly with ESI.

While Lalit Modi hates having to deal with such democratic organisations as players' associations, he is surely intelligent enough to realise that the security issues that threatened to tear his tournament apart were only resolved due to Fica and the players' associations acting on their players' behalf and keeping them fully informed.