NEW DELHI: The next Commonwealth Games and cricket World Cup will go ahead as planned, Indian authorities say, despite last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 172 people.
Randhir Singh, secretary-general of the Indian Olympic Association, said the Commonwealth Games will be staged in New Delhi as scheduled in 2010.
"The Mumbai attacks are tragic, but high-level security has already been planned for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi," said Singh, a vice president of the Commonwealth Games organizing body.
"We're determined to stage the Commonwealth Games and will make no compromise on security," added Singh, who is also the general secretary of the Olympic Council of Asia and a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Singh's assertion follows news reports quoting Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Michael Hooper saying that India's security situation was being monitored and there was a possibility of the 2010 event being shifted to another country.
"The security arrangements will match those at the Beijing Olympic Games this year, and what is expected at the 2012 London Olympics," Singh said.
New Delhi was chosen to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games after several failed bids, becoming only the second Asian city to be allocated the games that bring together athletes from the former British Empire. Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, in 1998 became the first Asian city to host the Commonwealth Games.
The Indian cricket board has rejected reports of the possibility of shifting the 2011 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The International Cricket Council is expected to discuss the World Cup during next week's Chief Executives Committee meeting at Cape Town.
Sharad Pawar, a senior minister in India's union cabinet who recently finished his term as BCCI president, told India's independent CNN-IBN television that the government would take "all precautionary measures."
"Our government will take corrective actions" on security, said Pawar, who will be ICC president at the time of the 2011 World Cup.
Another senior Indian board official, Rajiv Shukla, said talk of moving the World Cup out of the subcontinent was "too far-fetched."
"All security issues will be sorted out, there won't be any problems in staging the World Cup," Press Trust of India quoted Shukla as saying.
The Pakistan Cricket Board is adamant the next World Cup will be played in the subcontinent.
"There is no suggestion under consideration to shift the World Cup from the subcontinent," PCB chief operating officer Salim Altaf was quoted as saying in Pakistan media. "The International Cricket Council has agreed with us that the megaevent will be played in the Asian countries."
The terrorist attacks on Mumbai have raised political tension between India and Pakistan after claims that the terrorists were natives of Pakistan.
India's cricket officials have not yet received the mandatory government approval to tour Pakistan in January and February. The Indian government recently stopped its junior national field hockey team from playing a series in Pakistan due to security reasons.
India and Pakistan had earlier jointly staged two World Cups, in 1987 and 1996. Sri Lanka had also participated as a joint host for the 1996 World Cup.
IHT
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