Aspasian - One for All and All for One

“Life is more important than playing cricket”, this should be the thought of every English cricketer in India, courtesy the Mumbai terror attack. Adding fuel to the fire is that the militants targets were the US and UK citizens. Really with the perturbed minds, they asked the BCCI to cancel the next two ODI’s. BCCI agreed to the request of ECB and the English players flew back to England with the Test series in question.

The IPL chairman Mr. Lalit Modi told that the Champions League has been postponed next year and India will be hosting the event as per the agreement. Ahmedabad was suppose to host the first test match and Mumbai the second. The ECB asked the BCCI to transfer the venues to South India. The BCCI in response informed that the second test will be held in Chennai, but after some discussions the venues are changed as follows. The first test will be played at Chennai and the second will be at Mohali. ECB welcomed this and told that they will send Mr. Reg Dickason to assess the security issues in both the venues.

Meanwhile the English players flew to Abu Dhabi and started their training session there. Once they got the security report from ECB, they will decide whether to travel to India or return back to their homeland. Mr. Dickason has assessed the first venue and the sources said that he was very much convinced with the high level security that will be provided by the Tamilnadu police to the English team. Next with some of the ECB officials, he will be visiting the second venue, Mohali. It is learnt that they have some difficulty in playing the match at Mohali. The reasons are 1) its proximity to Pakistan, 2) no direct flights to England, 3) the distance between Chennai and Mohali. If Mr. Dickason felt it is secure enough then he will give a positive report to ECB. The ECB in turn will give the report to the English team in Abu Dhabi. The English captain said that if they felt it is 100% secure playing in India, they will be having a good series. The first test starts on 11^th December in Chennai. Let’s hope that the English team will be here in Chennai to play cricket to defeat terrorism and to be defeated by our Indian cricket team.