ECB Confident Over India Tour Schedule

With the England team having arrived in India guarded by an unprecedented security detail, the England and Wales Cricket Board has declared its confidence that the full two Test series will go ahead as planned despite recent troubles in the country.

England returned to India this week for the first Test in Chennai starting on 11th December amid unprecedented security after the attacks in Mumbai in November.

The second match of the two-Test series, which starts on 19 December, was moved from Mumbai to Mohali.

England will be guarded by 5,000 police officers, including 300 highly-trained commandos, during the first Test match in Chennai.

Said ECB managing director Hugh Morris: ‘We’re going through the same checks in Mohali as we did in Chennai.

‘Our security team is on the ground with the local authority in Mohali at the moment and Sean Morris, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, and myself will be travelling to Mohali to ensure that all our requirements are in place.

‘We are hoping to complete those checks in the next 48 hours. We’ve received excellent support from the commissioner of police here in Chennai and the BCCI and we’re expecting to have exactly the same level of support from the Punjabi Cricket Association and the police authorities there.

‘We’re very hopeful that everything we need, as far as our security requirements are concerned, are going to be in place.’

England’s one-day series in India was cut short after the attacks on 26th November and during their time in Chennai they will be protected by more than 5,000 security guards drawn from India’s police force and commando units.

Morris, the ECB managing director, added that security was their primary concern on the team’s return to India and that every precaution had been taken to protect the players.

‘Clearly we’ve got heightened security. That’s been the process that we’ve put in place over the last week or so.

‘We want to make sure the environment for the players is as safe and secure as we possibly can. Our security advisors believe that the measures we’ve put in on the ground are able to do that.’