Colombo, August 13: As MS Dhoni slaps Irfan Pathan on the back to share a loud joke, then turns around to have a go at Sreesanth, a group of excited teenagers move in to record the moment. Soon, one of them reaches out to shake his favourite cricketer’s hand. That’s when you spot the first finger signal from one corner of the Taj Samudra lobby here.
That call sign is immediately picked up by three young men lounging in one corner, their eyes alert, one hand moving towards a brief case—there’s a gun inside. The moment passes, the cricketers move on, and the three gently sink back into the sofa.
Meet the crack team of the Sri Lanka Ministerial Security Division, responsible for VVIP security, which these days means the Indian cricket team. Trained in the US, and deployed in two rings, over 50 of them are outside the hotel with mini-Uzi guns and in ‘civvies’ and over 25 inside with M-75 9mm pistols tucked in holsters under their shirts or inside their waistbands behind their backs.
Their job: to cover Team India without a soul knowing about it. There’s the Army and the local police out on the streets, of course, especially with the “troubles” up north and last week’s car blast in Colombo that killed a three-year-old girl a few kilometers away from this hotel.
But this elite force takes extra care to not let the visitors, who move around freely in the lobby, know they are there, 24 hours. That is, till you catch on to those alert eyes, the hand signals—and yes, those brief cases.
Says Nihal Jayasekhara, chief inspector, who is in charge of the Indian team’s security: “We have a tight system in place, but we don’t want to disturb the players or make them aware that we are there. But we know they are secure.”
“We have a solid network around the team in the hotel, at the ground, while they are on the move and even the layers don’t know about it. In fact, except for the senior security officials in the hotel, nobody knows we are there, blending in with the crowd with our suitcases and bags,” adds one of his men posted in one of the floors up above. “I myself don’t know how many of my colleagues are there on this floor and when they come in. Outside, you can even mistake some of us for auto drivers!”
“Security? Where?” asks Sreesanth. Obviously, with a crucial tri-nation one-day series starting tomorrow, the last thing the Indian team want around them is a stifling khaki cover. Jayasekhara and his men agree.
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