Australia confirms to tour India despite bombings

Melbourne, Sep 16 (UNI) Cricket Australia (CA) today confirmed that its team will go ahead with the tour of India after a security review following a series of bombings in New Delhi which killed more than 30 people and left scores injured.

Earlier after the blasts, CA, on Sunday, had said it would send a review team to inspect the security situation in the country.

''We have done a review of our security advice and it has not changed since last week,'' CA public affairs manager Peter Young said. ''The safety and security advice for India is broadly speaking to exercise caution.'' ''Our advice is there are some concerns and to exercise caution, but currently they do not compromise the tour,'' CA public affairs manager Peter Young said in a statement on the organisation's website.

Young said the organisation would put up a stringent security arrangement for the senior team and the Australia A side which is currently in India for a tri-series which also includes New Zealand A as the third side.

CA has had discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which would also upgrade the security in and around the dressing rooms and provide escorts for the team to and from the ground.

''In consultation with the BCCI, we have upgraded security in and around the dressing rooms and they will have an escort to the ground,'' Young said.

''Australia A players have also been told not to leave the hotel without good reason. It's just a matter of prudence.'' The Test side are due to leave Australia on Sunday and start the tour with warm-up matches in Jaipur and Hyderabad.

Both the cities have been the victims of terrorist attacks in last one year.

The first Test begins in Bangalore on October 9 while the third Test will be hosted by Delhi on October 29.

This year has already seen the Australian team pulling out of a tour of Pakistan and withdrew from the Champions Trophy due to be held in Pakistan this month because of security fears.

However, Young, clarified that the security assessment differs from country to country and said, ''The problems (in India) are completely different in intensity and of a different nature.'' ''In very broad terms the advice we have is in sharp contrast to what we had for Pakistan, which was that it was not safe to travel (in Pakistan) because the attacks there were targeting westerners,'' Young said.

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