The itinerary of the Champions League T20 matches was given to the Delhi Police several weeks ago but the police refused to grant permission to the Delhi and District Cricket Association till the last moment. The situation was so tense that DDCA President Arun Jaitley spoke to Home Minister P Chidambaram soon after the Delhi Police refused to give permission for the matches at the Ferozshah Kotla grounds.
Indeed, the police also refused to provide security to the teams, on the grounds that it could not pull out men from more urgent assignments. Even after Chidambaram assured Jaitley that he had no objection to the holding of the matches, the local police refused to give the go-ahead till the last minute. As a result, the DDCA couldn’t sell all match tickets — this cost the DDCA a loss of over Rs 50 lakh for the first day’s match. So is the Delhi Police anti-sport, or is there something else behind this?