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Warm-up matches might be switched to Pakistan

England consider itinerary retaliation

Cricinfo staff

November 20, 2005

The quiet anger inside the ECB at the way it feels its Indian counterparts deliberately arranged an itinerary to annoy England has only been compounded by the announcement that the two warm-up matches for the tour have been allocated to the cities of Jamshedpur and Agartala. The latter is in the rather remote north-east of the country and has never staged an international match.

John Carr and Richard Bevan, who met with BCCI officials on Thursday, were told that the Test and ODI venues were non negotiable - England are upset that only one major ground, Mumbai, the venue for the third Test, has been included in the itinerary. Carr and Bevan were told that the BCCI's policy of rotating the grounds was the reason.

The row is likely to escalate with a revelation in the Sunday Telegraph that England are now set to rearrange their itinerary to play the warm-up games in Pakistan before flying to India. A Pakistan board official confirmed that an approach had been made.

The ECB see the tour itinerary as a direct snub, the latest incident in a feud which goes back a decade, and in which it has little doubt that Jagmohan Dalmiya plays a key role. He attended the meeting on Thursday, although as Carr observed, in exactly what capacity he did so was unclear.

While the ECB makes it clear that it accepts the host country has the right to arrange the itinerary, it is fuming that it appears to have been delivered such an overt slap in the face. This row seems set to run and run.

© Cricinfo