Australia decided yesterday to go ahead with their upcoming four-Test tour of India despite security concerns following a series of deadly bomb attacks in New Delhi.
“Our advice is there are some concerns and to exercise caution, but currently they do not compromise the tour,” Cricket Australia said on its Web site.
Ricky Ponting’s 15-man squad is due to leave this weekend with the first Test starting in Bangalore on Oct. 9, with a Test match in Delhi from Oct. 29.
Five coordinated bomb blasts ripped through crowded markets across the Indian capital on Saturday evening, killing more than 20 people and wounding at least 90 others.
Indian Mujahideen, a shadowy Muslim militant group, claimed responsibility.
Cricket Australia commissioned a security review following the bombings and spokesman Peter Young said it had concluded that travel to India remained appropriate.
He said tight security arrangements were already in place for the Australia A team currently in India, and they would be extended to the senior squad when they arrived.
“In consultation with the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India], we have upgraded security in and around the dressing rooms and they will have an escort to the ground,” he said.
“Australia A players have also been told not to leave the hotel without good reason. It’s just a matter of prudence,” Young said.
The team will initially travel to Jaipur, where 65 people were killed in similar blasts in May, for acclimatization and a practice match.
A second practice match in Hyderabad is scheduled before the first Test in Bangalore, the city rocked by eight bombs in July that killed a woman and injured seven.
Australia was one of the nations that declined to tour Pakistan this month for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Champions Trophy on security grounds, which led to the tournament being put off by a year.
Australia had also refused to undertake a tour of Pakistan in March-April for similar security fears.
Pakistan cricket officials yesterday slammed the decision to go ahead with the tour of India saying it smacked of double standards.
“Pakistan is as safe a country as India and we had even promised state level security for the Australians and other teams,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi Naghmi said. “The events [Australia touring India] only shows the double standards of Australian cricket.”
Naghmi said the PCB hopes Australia fulfill their commitment to tour next year.
“Now we will see if Australia will come to Pakistan next year and what pretext they now make,” he said.
“Terrorist attacks can take place anywhere. No country is safer than the other and this point was highlighted after the unfortunate and sad incident in Delhi,” Naghmi said.
“We find it hard to comprehend that when Australian cricketers can tour a country which has had a succession of bomb attacks what is so different about coming to Pakistan,” he said.
Naghmi also criticized the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) for not believing what the ICC said about Pakistan.
“The stance taken by the ACA was disappointing as even the ICC and other countries had acknowledged the great efforts made by Pakistan to provide a safe environment for the Champions Trophy and cleared Pakistan as safe,” he said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS