India’s cricket chiefs were yesterday hoping Australia’s Test tour would begin as scheduled next week despite security concerns following a series of deadly bomb attacks in New Delhi.
“The blasts are a concern, but I don’t think it will have an impact on the Australian tour,” Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah told reporters.
Five synchronized bomb blasts ripped through crowded markets across the Indian capital on Saturday evening.
New Delhi is scheduled to host the third of the four Tests between India and Australia from Oct. 29 after Ricky Ponting’s tourists arrive next Sunday for the six-week tour.
Cricket Australia has commissioned an urgent review of the security situation in India with officials expecting a decision “in the next week or so.”
“The fundamental principle that always comes first is the safety of the team and the team officials,” Cricket Australia’s public affairs manager Peter Young was quoted as saying by the Web site Cricinfo. “There’s a standard process for every tour. Such is the way of the world these days that this process is completed before we go anywhere.”
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.
Australia had also refused to undertake a Test tour of Pakistan in March and April for similar security fears.
“The specific answer we were given on Pakistan was that it was not safe to go,” Young said. “We will take advice on this situation and will make a decision. We expect that to be in the next week or so.”
The Australian government’s updated travel advice for India is “to exercise a high degree of caution because of the high risk of terrorist activity by militant groups.”
Indian cricket officials have reason to be wary of Australia’s security concerns.
Ponting’s men are expected to spend the first week training in Jaipur, the state capital of western Rajasthan, where 65 people were killed in similar blasts in May.
The blasts, however, did not deter foreign players, including former Australian spinner Shane Warne, from taking part in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition which was being held at that time in various cities, including Jaipur.
The southern city of Bangalore, which hosts the first Test, was rocked by eight bombs in July that killed a woman and injured seven.
England, who tour India after the Australian series, are scheduled to play the first of two Tests in the western city of Ahmedabad, where 45 people were killed in July in serial bomb blasts.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier