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.