Get your own security, WI to India

According to the West Indian authorities they were short of security personnel to deal with such terror threats.

So the Ministry of External Affairs stepped in and the NSG was asked to shortlist a 16-member squad to be sent to West Indies.

The NSG team is expected to leave early next week.

Director General of NSG, Jyoti Krishan Dutt, said that the NSG squad would be for anti-sabotage check.

"The commando team is not travelling with the Indian cricket team. They will go to the West Indies as per the communication we have received from the Ministry of External Affairs. I would be not able to say whether the request came from the West Indies or some other authority but we received a communique from the MEA that the team consisting of a bomb disposal squad would go to the West Indies. Their services would be utlised for the job in which they specialise. From what I have learnt the work, which the team would be, doing there is in the context of security of the venues where the World Cup is being held. In fact the West Indies have also called for security personnel from some other countries too," Dutt added.

This is for the first time that the NSG commandos would be sent for the security of Indian team anywhere outside the country.

The Indian government has assured that the team would be provided with adequate security cover.

"India will provide all feasible support to ensure security for cricket teams in the World Cup. There was a formal request by the West Indies authorities to the Indian government to help them with the security cover," Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, Anand Sharma, said.

The Cabinet Secretary BK Chaturvedi told CNN-IBN that the NSG team would only provide security cover to the Indian team.

Meanwhile the vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Rajiv Shukla said that they were unaware about the security cover being provided to Team India.

"There was no request from the home ministry to the BCCI for any security cover of the players and BCCI is unaware of this," Shulka said.

The 15-member Indian team flew to the West Indies on the night of February 28.

(With inputs from Bhupendra Chaubey and Pallavi Ghosh)

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