England board slams BCCI for itinerary changes

The England and Wales Cricket Board has lashed out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India over changes...

The England and Wales Cricket Board ECB has lashed out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI over changes made to the proposed itinerary for their upcoming tour in November-December this year.

In a letter addressed to BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, ECB director John Carr has expressed disappointment at the 8220;significant changes8221; made to the tentative itinerary, especially as the changes had been made 8220;to the venues that ECB had been happy with8230; as opposed to the venues about which we had raised concerns8221;.

He also raised security concerns after Guwahati was added to the list of cities that will host one-dayers. 8220;The ECB has been advised that there may be security issues with a scheduled match in Guwahati which we shall now need to formally review through our High Commission and security consultants.8221;

England are scheduled to play two Tests and seven one-dayers. According to the revised itinerary, they will play the Tests at Ahmedabad and Mumbai, while the ODIs kick off in New Delhi before moving on to Indore, Rajkot, Jamshedpur, Cuttack, Guwahati and Kanpur.

The BCCI allots Tests and ODIs on a rotational basis, a theory that the ECB doesn8217;t buy.

8220;With regard to the Test match allocation it is hard to see how this can be a rota issue as according to our research Jaipur has not staged a Test match since 1987 and Ahmedabad staged a Test in early April 2008, whereas Kolkata staged its last Test in Nov 2007. In addition England played a Test in Ahmedabad in late 2001 whereas our Team has never played a Test in Jaipur and has not played a Test at Eden Gardens since 1993.8221;

The ECB is also upset that Goa has been taken off the list. 8220;It is a great shame for our travelling supporters that BCCI proposes removing Goa as a venue and we are also disappointed that our Team will not have the opportunity to visit the impressive stadium and facilities at Vizag for the first time. Again we struggle to understand how this can be a rota issue when Guwahati an addition to the schedule was allocated ODIs scheduled in 2002, 2003, 2006 and November 2007 whereas Goa8217;s last three allocated ODIs were 2001, 2006 and February 2007. We also see that Vizag has staged just two ODIs in 2005 and February 2007.8221;

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Carr has asked the board to provide details of the logistics involved on the tour. 8220;As you know, a key concern of ours relates to the logistics of the Tour8230; You have kindly confirmed that BCCI will ensure direct flights between all venues, arranging charters where necessary and we would ask that BCCI ensures that these arrangements allow our whole tour party to fly directly into Kanpur and Jamshedpur from the previous ODI venues and out of these venues directly to the next ODI venues 8212; with regard to the logistics of a hectic seven-match ODI schedule it will be important to avoid having to transfer Kanpur-Lucknow and Jamshedpur-Ranchi. We look forward to receiving the proposed day-by-day schedule for the Tour including these flight arrangements for our consideration.8221;