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There is no threat to Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in Mumbai, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil stated in the Assembly on Thursday while refuting reports in a section of media.
The T20 cricket extravaganza is set to start from March 26. Earlier in the day, the Mumbai police too had clarified that they had received no intelligence inputs about any terror threat during the tournament.
“There was news in a section of the media about a threat to IPL in Mumbai or someone conducting a recce....There is no threat to the IPL in Mumbai. Nobody conducted recce, there is no threat from anyone. And the police department too has made this clear," Walse-Patil said in the Assembly.
Some unverified viral messages on social media had said that 'terrorists' had conducted recce at Hotel Trident, the Wankhede Stadium and along the bus route between these two locations.
Mumbai Police was geared up to ensure full security for the IPL, a police release said earlier in the day.
There have been no intelligence inputs about any terror threat and adequate security arrangements will be made at the two stadiums in the city (Wankhede and Brabourne) where matches will be played as well as at the hotels where players and support staff will be staying, police said.
The matches will take place between March 26 to May 22.
There are at least three days when matches will be held at Wankhede and Brabourne stadiums at the same time, and there will be adequate police deployment to avoid any untoward incident, said a police official.
Prior to the games, police officials have been asked to visit the stadiums as well as the hotels where players are staying, and buses ferrying players would be provided police escort, he added.
Meanwhile in the IPL 2022 opener, the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and last year's runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will lock horns with each other.
The 10-team season will have 70 league games to be played at four venues in Mumbai and Pune, 14 more than IPL 2021, which had only 8 teams. The decision to play the matches in a single hub (the Mumbai-Pune corridor) has been taken to avoid air travel in a bid to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infection.
All 10 teams will be playing a total of 14 league matches (7 home matches and 7 away matches), totaling 70 league matches, followed by the 4 playoff matches. Each team will play 5 teams twice and the remaining 4 teams only once (2 only home and 2 only away).
The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai will host 20 matches, while the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai will both host 15 matches. Meanwhile, the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai will host 20 matches, while Pune’s Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium will get to host 15 matches. However, the BCCI is yet to confirm the venues for the three playoffs and the final.
There are two groups with five teams each. While Mumbai Indians are leading Group A, defending champions Chennai Super Kings are headlining the Group, the BCCI has assigned the teams to two virtual groups on the basis of the number of IPL Championships won, followed by the number of final matches played by the respective teams.
