No Sena, no snake, no statement so far

NEW DELHI, February 3: The 20 snake-charmers of Badarpur are dressing up for the occasion. Outside the dressing rooms in Ferzoeshah Kotla...

NEW DELHI, February 3: The 20 snake-charmers of Badarpur are dressing up for the occasion. Outside the dressing rooms in Ferzoeshah Kotla and in the galleries, they hope to catch your eye in their brightly-coloured apparels.

Says one of the organisers: “Their sardar even requested us for new clothes. We have agreed. After all, they are the ones in demand.” Twelve hours before India and Pakistan meet for the second test match, the 10,000 odd men in khaki drawn from the Delhi Police and other paramilitary forces were settling down around Fortress Ferozeshah Kotla’ for their five-day-long vigil when India and Pakistan play cricket.

“No threats, no statements from Shiv Sena leaders and no snakes so far”, says constable Ishwar Singh of the Delhi Armed Police. “I hope this doesn’t change much.”

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For the policemen and the groundsmen, the topic of discussion is not cricket, at least not now. It’s snakes and snake-charmers. And what will happen if a snake is sneaked into the stadium. “Imagine this: Sachin is batting and Akram is bowling. There is a snake in the galleries and the snake-charmer starts blowing his reed,” says Ishwar Singh as his colleagues burst into peels of laughter.

The policemen, however, get tense when you start asking them about security. They say their seniors have briefed them about possible threats for various corners, and not just the Shiv Sainiks.

Also, the Police Headquarters has made it obvious they mean business, even with the snake-charmers around. Five Deputy Commissioners of Police, 12 Assistant Commissioners of Police and 44 inspectors from Delhi Police will lead the security cordon in and around the stadium for the five-day match. Special Commissioner of Police (security and operations) R.S.Gupta and Joint Commissioner of Police (northern range) Suresh Roy are personally overseeing the security arrangements.

The match organisers, meanwhile, are impressed with the security, but not with the ticket sales. Till this afternoon only 5,000 odd tickets had been sold. “We expect sales to pick up from tomorrow, and during the weekend. We hope that cricket-lovers do not keep away because of the security arrangements,” said one of them.