England-India ODI Series 2008

Chennai, Mohali to stage Tests

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.

Tags: england, India, RBS Series 2008