By Neena Bhandari, IANS,
Sydney : Cricket Australia (CA) Thursday has told the Victorian and Western Australian sides, participating in the Twenty20 Champions League scheduled to begin next week, not to travel to India following the series of terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The Victoria team was to stay at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers, one of the two hotels that were targets of the deadly assault.
“We’ve obviously been in contact with our colleagues in India early this morning. Given the circumstances, Cricket Australia has put an immediate hold on any cricket-related travel to India,” CA spokesman Philip Pope told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“We have been speaking to our own security expert who is in India, we’ve been speaking to the players’ association and our own playing groups and stakeholders. “We find in circumstances like these that it takes at least 12 hours, if not longer, to gain a very clear picture and for clear details to emerge. So for now we’ll put that hold on cricket-related travel to India and will continue to monitor the situation,” Pope told the ABC.
The state players were scheduled to leave for India on Saturday and the first game was scheduled to be played in Mumbai next Wednesday.
The Victorian cricket team officials were due to fly Friday and stay at the Taj Hotel, which has been one of the main targets of the deadly attacks.
“Yes, we were due to book into the Taj with some officials due to fly over tomorrow and the bulk of the team due to go over there on Saturday. We’re awaiting advice from the government and also Cricket Australia and their security personnel”, Cricket Victoria’s Eivion Bowen told ABC.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals’ captain Shane Warne and Darren Berry, who were supposed to arrive in Mumbai Thursday from Singapore, have cancelled their travel plan.
Other Australian Test stars representing Indian Premier League (IPL) teams, Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey and Shane Watson, were also expected to be in India.