Mumbai is to host the final match of the three-Test series, from December 2 to 6, and team manager Brendon Kuruppu has made it clear in a letter dated November 11, three days after the Lankans landed in Mumbai, to security coordinator Major General Lawrence Fernando back home in Colombo that the security personnel need to get their acts together. Fernando has since forwarded that letter to a top-ranking Mumbai police official.
Security is a particularly touchy subject with the Lankans following the terror attack on the national team in Lahore in early March, and Kuruppu therefore had every reason to voice his misgivings. “I am not convinced that we have been provided the security you had requested,” Kuruppu has written to Fernando. “Only a few police officers carry automatic weapons as far as we can see. We have not been provided with vehicles on either side of the team bus.”
Kuruppu added that he didn’t believe the security was competent enough to handle a Lahore-style attack. “In my personal (opinion), they will be able to assist us in case there are invasions by the fans to mob the players and not certainly a terrorist attack since most of them are unarmed. Even yesterday, there was a car which came in between the team bus and the van carrying unarmed police officers. I believe we would need police bikes to cover the sides using armed police commandoes with automatic weapons.”
Outlining his requirements, Kuruppu went on, “We need minimum one officer 24/7 who can communicate well in English on our floor and also in our convoy. This has been the major drawback in arranging our security requirements.” Kuruppu added that the players were concerned over the security alerts which had been sounded out last Tuesday ‘in Mumbai and other cities in India’.