Wellington, Feb 21 (IANS) New Zealand should take independent advice on the “massively important” issue of security for the Commonwealth Games being held in India, said an official of a player’s association.
The demand comes following a warning by Al Qaeda’s Pakistan arm threatening attacks in India, particularly upcoming international sports events like the Commonwealth Games, the Hockey World Cup and the IPL cricket tournament.

“It’s massively important to seek independent advice on issues of security. I can’t emphasise that point enough,” New Zealand’s Sunday News quoted Heath Mills, head of the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association, as saying.

“Any analysis or supposed guarantees you get from the organisers of any event is clearly going to be conflicted. They are entirely motivated to make sure the event goes ahead for political reasons as well as having a commercial interest in it.

“When it comes to our Black Caps going overseas, we feel it’s vitally important to have independent people who can go in there and review the security management plans that event organisers put in place.”

The Commonwealth Games are being held in New Delhi Oct 3-14. Before that, the IPL cricket tournament will be staged March 12-April 25 at various venues across the country.

Mills observed that interacting with the New Zealand government and Commonwealth Games Federation won’t be enough for him.

“You get as much information out of the various government agencies that you can. They have good people involved but in our experience they will only provide information as opposed to advising you what to do. At the end of the day, they are not responsible for the athletes and nor should they be. The duty of care lies with the national sports body,” the official was quoted as saying.