Oriental Insurance to renegotiate insurance cover for IPL

NEW DELHI: State-owned Oriental Insurance Company Ltd on Sunday said it will renegotiate the insurance cover for IPL matches with the organisers of the 20:20 cricket tournament.

"We have to talk to re-insurance companies for the value of insurance cover for the IPL matches," M Ramadoss, CMD of Oriental Insurance Company Ltd, said.

Insurance companies distribute the risk on large insurance covers by going in for re-insurance.

According to an official involved in the deal, the firm was to provide insurance cover for the IPL matches in India at a premium of about Rs 500 crore excluding the ones for injuries of the players. He said, "What the cover will be now we do not know."

Concerned at the security of the cricket teams, the government today shifted the IPL to another country amid speculation that England or South Africa would be the venue for the second edition of the high-profile event.

The decision to shift the Twenty20 tournament out of the country was taken at the BCCI's emergency Working Committee meeting, because its schedule virtually overlapped with the Lok Sabha elections, which meant enough security was not possible for the matches.

"Because of the attitude of the government that they are not ready to spare security forces for the cricket tournament... we are forced to take the decision to move the event out of India," BCCI President Shashank Manohar told a press conference.