Pakistan fume as Australia tour India

Australia decided Tuesday to go ahead with their upcoming tour of India despite security concerns following a series of deadly bomb attacks in New Delhi, drawing scathing criticism from Pakistan.

“Our advice is there are some concerns and to exercise caution, but currently they do not compromise the tour,” Cricket Australia said on its website.

Ricky Ponting’s 15-man squad is due to leave this weekend with the first of four Tests starting in Bangalore on October 9. Delhi will host one Test match from October 29. Confirmation of the tour follows five coordinated bomb blasts which 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 an urgent 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.

The team will initially travel to Jaipur, the state capital of western Rajasthan where 65 people were killed in similar blasts in May, for acclimatisation and a practice match. A second practice match in Hyderabad is scheduled before the first Test in Bangalore, the southern 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 Champions Trophy on security grounds, which led to the tournament being put off by a year.

SYDNEY, Thursday, AFP