The BCCI will not shift its matches from Mumbai after the issues it had with the police have been so
"We had a meeting today with Additional Commissioners of Police, Mr Naval Bajaj and Mr Madhukar Gavit, and other police officers and the issue has been sorted out. The issue was only with police passes. They (police) will now honour the accreditation issued by the BCCI," said Ratnakar Shetty, Treasurer of the MCA.
"The IPL matches on May 24 and 25 would be held at the Wankhede Stadium as scheduled," he added.
Shetty, who is also BCCI Chief Administrative Officer, and MCA Vice-President Dilip Vengsarkar met the police officials, a day after the issue had been raised at the BCCI's Working Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Thursday's meeting lasted for around two hours. The Board officials were upset at the need for them to sport police accreditation in addition to their own identity cards for entering the Cricket Centre housed inside the stadium, the home venue for IPL franchise Mumbai Indians.
The BCCI even threatened to shift the first two IPL play-off games scheduled for May 24 and 25 at the stadium and gave the MCA officials three days' time to sort out the matter with the city police.
Deputy Police Commissioner (Operations) Rajkumar Vhatkar told reporters that henceforth the police personnel would not be handling the security inside the stadium but would continue to man the surroundings.
"The security responsibility inside the stadium would be taken care of by the MCA's private security staff. Police would be deployed outside the stadium only for the IPL matches," Vhatkar said on Thursday.
"It will be left to the MCA's security staff to decide whom to allow or not allow inside the stadium with or without accreditation. If they don't have police passes, we would not object," he said.
The frisking of the spectators would also be done by the private security staff, Vhatkar added.
Only on Wednesday, Vhatkar had insisted that police credentials were a must to enter the stadium.
"Thorough security checking is required. Not even the city Police Commissioner is allowed to enter the ground without police accreditation. Then why are the BCCI officials making an issue out of it? Egos should be kept aside when it comes to security of thousands of people," he had said.
"We will not compromise with security. We have taken heightened security measures keeping in mind the safety of thousands of spectators, cricketers and all others present inside the ground. We cannot put all these people's security at stake because some people have ego problems," he had asserted.
Home Minister RR Patil said IPL matches would not be pulled out of the Wankhede Stadium.
"We will ensure that people and players are safe and the security personnel do not trouble them," he told reporters.
Patil admitted that there were a few complaints from BCCI over the security arrangements, but they have been sorted out now.
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