Australia told of CWG security plan theft last year

Australian tennis chiefs were told last year that the security plans for October's Commonwealth Games in India had been stolen, according to a report on Saturday.

Tennis Australia said information on the alleged theft came from its own independent security assessment ahead of its Davis Cup tie with India in Chennai last May.

It subsequently decided to pull out and forfeit the series.

Australia were fined $10,000 by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for failing to fulfill the fixture. Tennis Australia at the time said the decision was based on concerns over security arrangements.

A Tennis Australia spokesman said it understood that sensitive plans had been stolen from a computer, while another official told The Sydney Morning Herald said that the theft had led to a major security review.

There were media reports in India in March 2009 that computers containing Games security information were stolen from the office of New Delhi Police's Joint Commissioner for the Games.

However, police at the time denied that any sensitive material had gone missing in the theft, insisting that only an entertainment system and car papers were stolen from a vehicle belonging to a Games security official.

"It is clear that there was no theft of any security related or official documents whatsoever," the police said at the time.

According to a report prepared by Tennis Australia and published by a newspaper, the sporting body commissioned two security firms to assess the risk to its players competing in the Chennai tie.

Their report rejected an earlier security assessment by a Chennai consultant as inadequate and conflicted, the newspaper report said.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the alleged theft "forced the organisers to rejig the whole security plans for the Games".