Kolkata, April 28: It’s a story straight out of a Hollywood suspense thriller. As Kolkata Knight Riders take on Mumbai Indians in the IPL super-clash tomorrow in the presence of Shah Rukh Khan, Mukesh Ambani, Hrithik Roshan, Sachin Tendulkar and other celebrities, cricket has taken a back seat at the Eden Gardens; conspiracy theories are flying thick and fast in the Maidan and the power corridors of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

A day after the theft of power cables at Eden, there are signs of a larger controversy brewing, with CAB chief Prasun Mukherjee fearing that yesterday’s thefts and the April 20 floodlight fiasco are “linked” and part of a “larger concerted effort to sabotage” the IPL matches in Kolkata.

On the eve of the high-profile match, the CAB president and former city police commissioner candidly told The Indian Express this evening that he was suspecting foul play at a much more serious and larger level than initially thought of.

“I had thought all along that the floodlight failure during the April 20 match had nothing to do with sabotage. But after these thefts of power cables at specific locations at Eden, the floodlight failure may have been part of a sabotage attempt. Now I fear there’s a concerted effort to sabotage IPL matches in Kolkata and these thefts and all other problems, including the floodlight controversy, could be linked. You never know what they could be up to next,” Mukherjee said.

The CAB, organising franchisee Red Chillies Entertainment, and the Kolkata Police have gone into an overdrive, plugging security loopholes at the Eden Gardens with the CAB, in an unprecedented move, shelling out Rs 12 lakh to hire additional private security forces at vantage points over the next couple of days.

“This was supposed to be a cricketing carnival. Instead, cricket is in the background. Right now, it’s security arrangements that’s our headache, all because of these thefts, and the power failure and the suspicion of sabotage attempts,” rued the CAB president.

While Kolkata Police Commissioner GM Chakrabarti has deployed policemen in huge numbers at the stadium — almost turning the ground into a fortress — the CAB has hired a 25-member security team from Group-4 Securicos for round-the-clock vigil. The city police chief, meanwhile, briefed that a few people were being interrogated over the power cord thefts at the Eden Gardens.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has refused to be present at the stadium on Tuesday. “I won’t go for the IPL match at Eden. I wouldn’t have gone for the match even if Shah Rukh Khan would have invited me,” the CM remarked.