Tennis Australia has claimed that the security plan for this October's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi was stolen last year and it was one of the reasons for its decision to pull out of the Davis Cup tie against India last year.
TA said it cited the theft of the security plan as one of the three reasons for backing out of the tie scheduled in May in Chennai last year.
"Tennis Australia commissioned two security firms to assess the risk of its players competing in the tie in Chennai
and cited the stolen plans as justification for its decision to withdraw from the tournament," the Sydney Morning Herald
reported.
The Tennis Australia report does not specify who stole the security blueprints for the Games but the newspaper quoted
a source as saying that, "It forced the organisers to rejig the whole security plans for the Games."
TA President Geoff Pollard said the other factors that contributed to the decision included the general elections in
India and the "escalated activity by Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka".
"Al-Qaeda are everywhere in the world but they are a slightly higher risk in India than in other places. If the stolen plans had been the only risk, I think we would have gone to Chennai but we had the two extra risks of the election
and the Tamils in the dying weeks of their last fight," Pollard said.
"Al-Qaeda are everywhere in the world but they are a slightly higher risk in India than in other places. If the stolen plans had been the only risk, I think we would have gone to Chennai but we had the two extra risks of the election
and the Tamils in the dying weeks of their last fight," Pollard said.