Australians wait on travel advice

SYDNEY // Australia's cricketers are still waiting to learn whether they will proceed with their planned tour of India following a series of bombings that killed at least 20 people in New Delhi at the weekend. The Australian government has issued a travel warning about visiting India but said the final decision on whether the players should tour would be left to Cricket Australia. "We'll provide them with all of our up-to-date travel and assessment advisories," Australia's foreign minister Stephen Smith told local television today.

"They are also, as I understand it, getting their own independent security advice which is what they do on a regular basis. "But in the end it is for Cricket Australia to make a decision, which is how we have dealt with the proposed Pakistan Test tour and also the proposed Champions Trophy." The first Test of the four-match tour was scheduled for Oct 9 in Bangalore with the third contest starting in Delhi on Oct 20.

Cricket Australia have already asked independent security officials to provide them with information on whether it is safe to tour and are expecting an answer in the next few days with the squad due to fly out this weekend. Australia pulled out of their tour of Pakistan because of security fears and the Champions Trophy, which was also scheduled to take place in Pakistan but later postponed by the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Australia's players are growing increasingly concerned about the situation in India but there have been no real suggestions of a boycott. "I've been in touch with a couple of players and they just wanted to know what the process was," the Australian Cricketers' Association chief executive Paul Marsh told a Sydney radio station. "There's no panic within the group. There's just some general concern.

"They trust Cricket Australia and I'm sure we'll get the right decision and outcome." *Reuters