- Sunday, May 19, 2024
Cricket West Indies have assured that they were taking all safety measures to ensure that the month-long event went peacefully.
By: Shubham Ghosh
LESS than a month before the start of the T20 World Cup 2024, the West Indies, the co-hosts of the tournament, said that they received security threats from a terror outfit based in Pakistan, Cricbuzz reported. However, the board has assured all necessary measures to ensure that the marquee tournament is held safely, the report added.
“We work closely with authorities in the host countries and cities, and continually monitor and evaluate the global landscape to ensure appropriate plans are in place to mitigate any risks identified to our event,” Jonny Graves, the CEO of Cricket West Indies was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
Graves also said that everyone’s safety and security at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is their top priority.
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“Pro-Islamic State (IS) media sources have launched campaigns inciting violence against sporting events, which included video messages from the Afghanistan-Pakistan branch, ISKhorasan (IS-K) which highlighted assaults in numerous countries and urged supporters to join the battlefield in their countries,” the security alert cited in the report said.
Six venues in the West Indies will host the tournament to be held between June 1 and 29 and they are — Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
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Trinidad and Guyana will host the semi-finals while the final will take place in Barbados.
The United States is the other co-host which will have matches hosted at three venues — Florida, New York and Texas. There is no indication of any threat to the games in the US.
A report in Trinidad’s Daily Express quoted its prime minister Keith Rowley as saying that the Caricom (Caribbean Community) and security agencies were working to deal with the threat to the marquee tournament.
It was also reported that the Barbados regional security officials were monitoring potential threats to the ICC event.
As per reports, intelligence of a potential threat to the World Cup was received through Pro-Islamic State (Daesh) through the media group “Nashir Pakistan”, the Cricbuzz report added.
Nashir-e Pakistan is known to be an Islamic State group-affiliated propaganda channel.
Pakistan national cricket team, which ended as the runners-up in the 2022 edition played in Australia, will also take part in the tournament along with arch-rivals India and a number of cricketing powers.
The West Indies hosted the 50-over World Cup in 2007 and T20 World Twenty20.
