England's tour of India called off

[TheBoss]

NEW DELHI: The remainder of England team's cricket tour of India involving two ODIs and two Test matches is being called off in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks,
according to a top BCCI official.

The official, who requested anonimity pending a formal announcement, said that the England team has expressed reservation about continuing the tour and have conveyed their decision to the BCCI.


BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan had discussions with top officials of the England team in Bhubaneswar to dicuss the tour following the terror attack in Mumbai.


"Since the England team has strong reservations of continuing with the tour, we have asked them to give it to us in writing. A formal announcement will be made in a few
hours", the official said.


The England team officials are understoof to have asked the BCCI to abandon the one-day series and the subsequent two-match Test series and allow them to return home.


The meeting was attended by captain Kevin Pietersen, coach Peter Moores, manager Reg Dickaso and manager Andrew Walpole.

Sources said that BCCI was ready to call off the tour but wants England to visit India a few weeks later for the two-match Test series.

The England team management has conveyed the BCCI proposal to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) top brass who will discuss the proposal and get back to the Indian Board.


England have so far played five one-dayers and have lost all the matches to trail the seven-match series 0-5. They were also scheduled to play two Tests in Ahmedabad (Dec 11-15) and Mumbai (Dec 10-23).

The sources said that the upcoming Champions League, to be held in three different venues of the country from December 3 to 10, is also likely to be cancelled with many of the top overseas players reluctant to tour India.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1209725

[mj786]

Even CL T20 is cancelled as per few news reports..Australia are surely not sending its players to take part in CL T20.. so the same will be with shane warne.. even ICL is called off today i think.

but here is another news

England in India 2008-09

ODIs off but Tests will go ahead

Cricinfo staff

November 27, 2008



The England team suitcases lined up at the hotel lobby in Bhubaneswar © Getty Images




England have cut short the ongoing one-day series against India following Wednesday's terrorist strikes in Mumbai but Lalit Modi, the head of the BCCI's fixtures committee, said the two-Test series would go ahead. The ECB, he said, had agreed to this decision.

"The Test series will go ahead, and there is no problem with that," Modi told Cricinfo. "We are sure the first Test will go ahead as scheduled in Ahmedabad [from December 11]. But there is a problem over hosting the second Test in Mumbai [from December 19]. The ECB wants the Test to be shifted to southern India, we are exploring all options."

[rahulmg]

Its sad that we CLT20 postponed. I was waiting for it from many days. Hope England will come to India to play test matches and we will get some cricket action soon.

[ANANT GUPTA]

Sat 29
08:30 local, 03:00 GMT 6th ODI - India v England
Nehru Stadium, Guwahati
Match cancelled
December 2008
Tue 2
14:30 local, 09:00 GMT 7th ODI - India v England
Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Match cancelled

Chennai and Mohali to host Tests
Source - http://www.cricinfo.com.
The BCCI has unveiled a revised itinerary for England's tour of India, with Chennai and Mohali named as the two Test venues, replacing Ahmedabad from December 11-15, and Mumbai from December 19-23.

According to a BCCI press release, the ECB has informed the Indian board that it has agreed to the revised schedule, in which the warm-up match in Vadodara from December 5 to 7 has been scrapped. The tour will be officially cleared after discussions between the ECB's security consultant and officials in India, N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, said.

However, the ECB has yet to confirm that the tour is back on track, and is still awaiting the security audit being prepared by their security expert, Reg Dickason. No further announcement is expected from the England camp before Tuesday, as the players continue to weigh up the pros and cons of a return to India, so soon after last week's terrorist atrocities.

The new series itinerary might go some way towards calming England's fears, however. The original venue for the first Test was Ahmedabad in Gujarat, which was ruled out both because of its proximity to Mumbai, and because it was the scene of serial bomb blasts three months ago.

Chennai, which hosted South Africa during their Test tour earlier in the year, was offered as an alternate for the first Test because it is seen as having the least threat perception from a security point of view, which will help ease the immediate fears some of the England players have over touring India.

The ECB had specifically asked for a southern Indian venue for the second Test, instead of Mumbai, and Chennai was the original replacement. They have now been offered Mohali, a satellite town to Chandigarh in the north of the country. From a logistical point of view, the venue's proximity to Delhi should enable the tour party to obtain an easy passage back to England at the end of the tour and allow the squad to link up with their families for Christmas.

Besides, Mohali could not have hosted the first Test because it needed time to have the logistics and ground support in place, particularly with Punjab Cricket Association president IS Bindra currently out of the country.

Despite the itinerary changes, the ECB could send a weakened squad to return to India, with the national selector, Geoff Miller, insisting that no player would jeopardise their prospects of future selection if they chose not to tour. Three senior players are already believed to have ruled themselves out: Andrew Flintoff, who also suffered an ankle injury during last week's fifth ODI; James Anderson, whose wife is pregnant, and Steve Harmison.

Harmison, unsurprisingly, has been the most vocal dissenter in the England camp. "I'm sorry, but whatever is being asked of us in the next few days, at the moment, the idea of being asked to go back out there is the last thing on my mind," he told the Mail on Sunday. "This is beyond cricket. This is beyond anything. It's all very well for people back home to say we should carry on with the tour, but none of what has happened has anything to do with cricket."