By IANS
Perth : Officials at Perth’s Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) Ground have heaved a sigh of relief with Indian cricket board’s decision to go ahead with the tour.
Perth is the venue for the third Test between India and Australia, starting Jan 16, but the WACA officials said they are not considering employing extra security for the match despite tensions surrounding the tour and a history of racial abuse from spectators at the venue.
The series has already been marred by Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh’s three-Test ban for alleged racial slur against Andrew Symonds and also by poor umpiring by Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson in the second Test in Sydney.
WACA chief executive Graeme Wood said despite this he was confident the third Test would go ahead and also added that appropriate security measures would be in place to prevent any untoward incident here, similar to what happened in 2005.
“We are planning for the game to be on next Wednesday,” Wood said. “I spoke to James (Sutherland) and from Cricket Australia’s perspective the tour is on.”
“I am sure CA and the Indian cricket board will be working very diligently to make sure that, firstly, the Test goes ahead, and then the relationship between these two great countries continues,” Wood said.
“At this stage I am reasonably confident things will be resolved, because it would be an enormous thing for world cricket if someone pulled out halfway through a series,” he added.
During the 2005 Test match in Perth, members of the touring South African side revealed they were subjected to racial slurs and chants. Ashwell Prince, Garnett Kruger, Shaun Pollock, Justin Kemp and Makhaya Ntini all said they had been abused, with Ntini claiming he had been called “kaffir”.
Wood said vigilant security for the third Test has been planned for several months.
“From a security perspective, we have been planning for that for about three or four months now,” he said.