Cricket: England tour match called off amid unrest

ON the not unreasonable grounds that a city torn apart by shooting, rioting, arson and looting has got more important things on its mind than a cricket match, England's opening one-day international against India in Ahmedabad on Saturday has been called off.

The decision was taken by the Indian Cricket Board and relayed to the England team last night when they arrived here from Lucknow. Lucknow may not have been very peaceful, but only because you could barely hear yourself think for the din, and the only explosions over the past five days came from firecrackers in the crowd and the occasional backfire from a motor-rickshaw. Ahmedabad was a different matter altogther.

Despite the various 'no problem' statements emanating from the tour manager, Bob Bennett, for the past few days, the decision equates to a welcome dose of common sense even if he does not quite deserve his recently acquired nickname of 'Nero' (England manager fiddles while India burns). However, it finally took the Indian Board itself to recognise that it would be irresponsible to take either of the two teams to Ahmedabad.

The question now is whether England will end up with the full complement of six one-day internationals on the Indian leg of their tour, or settle for the remaining five.

The Indian Board's request to relocate the cancelled match to a date in between the first and second Tests has been rejected by the England management on the grounds that it would mean altering the Test match dates, but Bennett is still hopeful that they can play it here in Delhi on Saturday.

Bennett said: 'We don't believe the Tests should be changed and, although we would like to play another match, we feel it is up to the Indian Board to come up with another alternative. But we are confident that we will be able to move forward now and that the itinerary will be fulfilled. We are very content with the overall situation and we must stay relaxed. There's nothing to get alarmed about.'

The Delhi Cricket Association has said that there are no logistical problems involved in playing the game on Saturday but failing that, Bennett has asked that the match take place at the venue for Monday's second one-day international, Jaipur. If neither option bears fruit, England will ask for any kind of match here in Delhi on Saturday. A decision is expected this morning.

It is now becoming an increasing possibility that this entire tour will dissolve into chaos and eventual cancellation. Since the original itinerary was published, Kanpur, Indore, and Ahmedabad have all been crossed off the list because of the violence, and there were reports of further mayhem in Bombay, Calcutta and Bangalore last night. England are rapidly running out of trouble-free bolt holes.

Cancelling the Ahmedabad game has been more or less inevitable since the violence between Hindus and Muslims, which first broke out after the destruction of the Ayodyha Mosque, re-ignited a week or so ago. The two main headlines in the Times of India yesterday were: 'Fifty More Killed in Bombay' and 'Violence Unabated in Ahmedabad'. It is normally serious when this sort of thing gets on to the front pages in India.

The loss of Ahmedabad from the itinerary will not, in any event, cause untold grief among the touring party. Graham Gooch, the England captain, said: 'During the last few days we have been confined to a large extent in our hotel in Lucknow and players have been expressing their concern at the escalating violence in Ahmedabad. It would not have been acceptable for England players to be put in danger - and we are naturally concerned as individuals that things have not been going well in Ahmedabad.

'But there have been no problems for us in the places we have been so far on the tour and morale is not low.'

As for the violence, it was never good enough for Bennett to keep issuing statements saying that he had 'received assurances' from the British High Commission here. If you phoned hotel reception in India and asked them to send up the Treorchy Male Voice Choir someone would assure you that they would be sent up in five minutes. Assurances? They are shooting people on sight in Bombay.

What is more, half the point of playing these matches is to promote the game itself, and take the touring side to the local inhabitants, whether it be England in Ahmedabad, or India in Ashby-de-la- Zouch. The army presence in Ahmedabad is such that the locals were more likely to get closer to the business end of a sten gun than Graham Gooch.

Gooch, incidentally, ought to be more wary of outbreaks of unrest in his own team room than on the pavements of India at the moment. The relentless drill of all work and no play continued with a three-hour morning net session before the team left Lucknow, and given that Keith Fletcher, the team manager, is known to be in favour of the odd day off, Gooch is clearly having his own way at the moment.

Gooch's urge to cram in as much practice as possible is partly down to his own workaholic nature, and partly concern about the inadequacy of the early itinerary. England could have had a lengthy build-up, or Christmas at home, but not both, and they plumped (not unreasonably) for the latter.

However, with only tomorrow's one-day game against another Board Presidents' XI left before the international programme gets under way, only Gooch and Mike Gatting are in form with the bat, and John Emburey, a key bowler in the one-dayers, was hit for nine sixes in Lucknow.

Game under attack, page 28