Sport beefs up security since September 11

Shockwaves spread rapidly through the suddenly fragile world of international sport after the attacks of September 11 on New York and Washington.

The New Zealand cricket team, in Singapore en route to Pakistan for a three-test tour, were first to respond, opting to fly home immediately. Another victim was the biennial Ryder Cup team golf match between the United States and Europe, scheduled for the Belfry in England, which was postponed for a year.

Sri Lanka followed New Zealand's example and cancelled a cricket tour of Pakistan because of the proximity of Afghanistan and the United States pulled out of the Fed Cup women's team tennis tournament in Madrid.

As the world struggled to come to terms with the enormity of last September's attacks, apocalyptic visions abounded within the frightened sporting community with doubts suddenly cast on the two biggest international events of 2002 -- the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and the soccer World Cup.

New International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge confirmed the Winter Games, scheduled for February, would go ahead. But it was difficult to know whether to be reassured or alarmed by comments from IOC director general Francois Carrard at an executive board meeting in Lausanne.

Carrard told reporters the IOC had long possessed a worst-case plan in readiness for both summer and winter Games.

"Our scenario was, and is, a plane crashing on the opening ceremony, full of people, full of fuel in the midst of the opening ceremony broadcast worldwide on television," he said.

The phrase "unprecedented security measures" has become a stock cliche in the hype surrounding both the Olympics and the World Cup, rivalled only by the prediction that a "a billion television viewers worldwide" would tune in for either event.

In the Utah capital of Salt Lake City the reality matched the promises.

OMNIPRESENT SECURITY

Security was omnipresent with rigorous checks for individuals and vehicles entering Olympic venues. Combining efficiency with unfailing politeness, security personnel succeeded in reassuring athletics, visitors and media that everything possible was being done to ensure the safety of the Games without making the Olympic experience actively unpleasant.

"Security at the Olympics was high to begin with but the difference with previous Games was that it didn't slacken off," said one experienced Olympic observer. "Usually the first two or three days would be pretty tight but after that it would get a bit looser. There, it was the same level of security for the last day as for the first."

Federal and state officials said an unspecified number of undercover security officers were also present throughout the Games, mingling with the crowds in Salt Lake City, the Alpine skiing resort town of Park City and at the venues.

By any standards the security operation, involving 60 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, was a success with the biggest disturbance coming on the penultimate evening of the Games when police fired foam-tipped rubber bullets at rioters in the centre of Salt Lake City who were angry at being denied further access to the local 3.2 percent strength beer because of the state's strict licensing hours.

"We are very happy that the Olympics went off so well," said FBI director Robert S. Mueller. "The security model for the Atlanta Games is one that we wish to replicate not only in future Olympics but in other major national and global events."

As a part of the healing process in the United States, a tattered U.S. flag, recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, was carried into the Rice-Eccles Stadium during the opening ceremony by U.S. athletes accompanied by New York police and firefighters.

Major league baseball was the first domestic sport affected in the United States after September 11, with all games postponed for the following two days. Three PGA golf events were put back a day.

YANKEE SUPPORT

As a result the World Series was extended into November for the first time and the New York Yankees, generally unloved outside the Bronx, became sentimental favourites as they took the field against the Arizona Diamondbacks wearing hats honouring the New York police and fire departments.

The Diamondbacks finally prevailed in an extraordinary series in which winning or tying runs arrived three times in the bottom of the ninth innings, including the finale in Phoenix.

In the fall of 2001, baseball seemed worthy of the iconic status it had reached in American folklore as being truly a sport for and of the people.

Less than a year much on, the aura has disintegrated and the game seemed in danger of self-destructing last Friday, before management and union negotiators reached an agreement only hours before a strike deadline.

Writing in the New York Times before the deadlock was broken, Mike Freeman was sharply critical of both players and managers who tried to invoke the memories of September 11 to advance their respective causes.

"It has not quite dawned on the baseball brains that if there is no baseball being played while all the tribute to the September 11 victims are going on, few will be thinking of their sport," he said.

If the issues and squabbles in American sport seem depressingly familiar with references to "wars" and "conflicts" creeping back into general usage, September 11 has changed forever the previously relaxed attitude to security in the major U.S. sports.

Backpacks, radios and cameras are banned from the U.S. Open tennis tournament currently underway at Flushing Meadow and fans can expect searches at all events.

CRICKET SUFFERS

"It has changed the way people enter the stadiums," said Major League Baseball (MLB) spokesman Richard Levin. "Every league has rules for what people can bring into stadiums. It's just a greater sense of security, it's not quite as intensive as at airports but it's similar."

Outside the United States and after a trouble-free soccer World Cup, cricket has been the sport to suffer most.

Pakistan has been the unfortunate victim because of security fears over the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan exacerbated by rising tensions with India. Australia, the world's top-ranked side, are the latest team to pull out of a tour because of concerns about safety.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia has threatened retaliatory boycotts by the other Asian nations India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh against teams refusing to tour although it is difficult to see how they could be enforced.

For its part, the International Cricket Council (ICC), is exploring options of neutral venues after Pakistan and West Indies successfully completed a series in Sharjah.

"The focus shifts to ensuring the games are played in an alternative venue," said ICC president Malcolm Gray. "Clearly, having a team withdraw from a series is regrettable but the safety of players and officials cannot be compromised."