Srinagar: In an unprecedented situation Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were forced to cancel their practice session on Tuesday ahead of the IPL 2024 Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Wednesday, May 22.
“The practice session was scheduled at the Gujarat College Ground in Ahmedabad but had to be cancelled over security concerns specifically surrounding Virat Kohli, which was confirmed by the Gujarat Police,” report said.
The RCB didn’t even conduct a press conference before the Eliminator against RR due to the same reason, it said.
The police had also arrested four individuals over possible terrorist activity.
“Virat Kohli learned about the arrests after arriving in Ahmedabad. He is a national treasure, and his security is our utmost priority,” Vijay Singha Jwala, a police officer, said. “RCB did not want to take a risk. They informed us that there would be no practice session. Rajasthan Royals were also informed about the development, but they had no problems going ahead with their practice.”
Kohli has been in amazing form in the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2024 edition. In 14 matches, Kohli has scored 708 runs at an average of 63.65. His highest score of 113* came against RR, the team RCB will face in the Eliminator.
Kohli is also on the verge of becoming the first IPL batter to score 8,000 runs. He currently amasses 7,971 runs, the most by any batter in the IPL.
It should be noted that the police informed both of the concerned franchises about the security concerns but the Royals chose to ignore the police alert and conducted the training session as per their schedule.
However, the security protocol outside the RCB’s players and management hotel was maximised to counter any possible threats and even members of the IPL management were not allowed in the hotel.
As for the RR team, who had decided to go with their schedule, an immediate ‘green corridor’ was implemented to safely travel to and from from the hotel to the training session location.
Players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Riyan Parag had opted to not participate in the training session. RR’s captain, Sanju Samson reportedly arrived late at the ground due to the protocols.