London, Dec 9 : Five thousand police officers, including 300 highly-trained commandos, will provide security cover ahead of first Test in Chennai to English players who arrived in India on Monday.

The Tamil Nadu police force has launched a major security operation unseen before in the world cricket, The Telegraph reported.

The unprecedented security for England includes a total lockdown at the team hotel, the clearance of roads to and from the stadium and the use of armed guards from Rapid Action Force -- a specialist team of riot police.

“We are deploying over 5,000 people at the hotel and stadium,” said P Balasubramaniam, Joint Commissioner of Tamil Nadu Police.

“We have positioned 300 commandos at the hotel and 1,000 police at the outer periphery. These men will be there until the teams leave the city. Two thousand police personnel will be on duty at the stadium until December 15, the last day of the Test,” he added.

More than 300 police will patrol the grounds of the team’s five-star hotel in Mumbai, which is only open to players from both teams and officials from the two cricket boards. India is still gripped by fear following the terrorist attacks on the city.

England left their training camp in Abu Dhabi to fly into Chennai, where Indian cricket fans greeted them.

England captain Kevin Pietersen is taking no chances with security on the return to India – even though his team will have around 300 commandos protecting their hotel in Chennai. (ANI)