New York: The Islamic State terrorist organisation has issued an ominous threat against the T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan to be held here next month and New York officials were quoted as saying in media reports that they were heightening security.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she has "directed the New York State Police to engage in elevated security measures, including an increased law enforcement presence, advanced surveillance, and thorough screening processes".
Bruce Blakeman, the head of Nassau County, bordering New York City, where the match will take place, said: "We make sure that we are on top of every situation that could potentially arise. Now to that end, we have taken many many precautions."
"We take every threat seriously. There are the same procedures for every threat. We don't minimise threats. We track down all of our leads," he was quoted as saying in media reports.
The Islamic State terrorist organisation known by its initials, IS, posted on a British chat site an image of the cricket stadium at Eisenhower Park in Nassau County with drones flying over it showing the date, “9/06/2024”, the date of the India-Pakistan match.
New York officials downplayed the ISIS post as not a “credible threat”, while at the same time asserting that they were monitoring the situation.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder was quoted as saying that while "to date, there are no credible threats", his department "continues to monitor the situation and we are proactively deploying resources to maintain safety as you continue your day-to-day activities".
The World Cup Cricket stadium, which has a 34,000-capacity, was built specially for the tournament and will share the matches in the US with the arena in Dallas.
It will kick off on June 1 with an exhibition match between India and Bangladesh.
--------------------------------------
New York: The Indian men’s cricket team ahead of the T20 World Cup had their first ground session. Soham Desai, strength and conditioning coach, led the Indian team's light running session with some fun activities. However, the team opted out of any cricket practices as they chose to adapt to the timing zone of the USA.
“We didn’t have any practice session today as the motive of the ground session was to make the body adapt to the timing zones. The key thing playing in a away condition is to prepare your body and be mentally prepared for the challenges, so that is what we are developing for now,” Soham Desai told BCCI, according to media reports.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and traveling substitutes Shubman Gill and Khaleel Ahmed were involved in the activity.
India is set to play their lone warm-up game against Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on June 1.
Their Men’s T20 World Cup campaign begins on June 5 against Group A opponents Ireland in New York, followed by a highly-anticipated clash against Pakistan on June 9.
