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.

Melbourne, Dec. 9 : The chairman of Australia’s cricket selection committee, Andrew Hilditch, has said that off-spinner Jason Krejza could be preferred to all rounder Shane Watson for the first Test against the South Africans, beginning next week.

According to Fox Sports, Krejza appears to be the favourite to play ahead of the recalled Shane Watson despite Watson''s outstanding Sheffield Shield match for Queensland last week, when he claimed 7-69 and then scored 81.

"The likelihood is we will play a spinner in Perth. They bowl pretty well there. The breeze suits them, particularly off-spinners. Generally it is a pretty good place to bowl spin," Hilditch said.

Cape Town (South Africa), Dec. 9 : The ICC Chief Executives’ Committee met here on December 7 and 8 and discussed a range of issues relating to the playing and the business of cricket, some of which will be considered by the ICC Board when it next meets, in Perth at the end of January.

The results of the meeting were as follows:

Perth, Australia  - Serena Williams is booked for a series of three exhibitions this week in the United States, but that fact has not kept the world number two from withdrawing as defending champion at next month's Hopman Cup.

Williams and James Blake had been due to defend their title at the eight-nation mixed team competition starting January 3.

But Williams, claiming a hamstring injury, said she would be unable to participate. Her place in the team of five-time champion US will be taken by world number 50 Meghann Shaughnessy.

Hamburg - Bayern Munich have joined the list of clubs interested in signing SV Hamburg's Croatia striker Ivica Olic, according to a report to appear in Germany's Bild newspaper.

The German champions have made a firm offer for the player who has also been linked in various media reports with moves to Juventus, Valencia, Villareal and Liverpool, Bild reports.

The mass-circulation daily, in its edition to appear Tuesday, quotes Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge as saying Olic would make a perfect partner for strikers Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose.

Berlin - The marathons at the 2009 world athletics championships will pass Germany's parliament, the Reichstag, with the start and finish as planned at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, organizers said on Monday.

It will be the first time in world championship history that the marathon races don't end in the stadium used for the other competition.

The walks will also start and finish at the Brandenburg Gate, with a two-kilometres course for walkers to be set up on the Unter den Linden avenue.