The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has lashed out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over changes made to the proposed itinerary for their upcoming tour in November-December this year.

In a letter addressed to BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, ECB director John Carr has expressed disappointment at the “significant changes” made to the tentative itinerary, especially as the changes had been made “to the venues that ECB had been happy with... as opposed to the venues about which we had raised concerns”.

He also raised security concerns after Guwahati was added to the list of cities that will host one-dayers. “The ECB has been advised that there may be security issues with a scheduled match in Guwahati which we shall now need to formally review through our High Commission and security consultants.”

England are scheduled to play two Tests and seven one-dayers. According to the revised itinerary, they will play the Tests at Ahmedabad and Mumbai, while the ODIs kick off in New Delhi before moving on to Indore, Rajkot, Jamshedpur, Cuttack, Guwahati and Kanpur.

The BCCI allots Tests and ODIs on a rotational basis, a theory that the ECB doesn’t buy.

“With regard to the Test match allocation it is hard to see how this can be a rota issue as according to our research Jaipur has not staged a Test match since 1987 and Ahmedabad staged a Test in early April 2008, whereas Kolkata staged its last Test in Nov 2007. In addition England played a Test in Ahmedabad in late 2001 whereas our Team has never played a Test in Jaipur and has not played a Test at Eden Gardens since 1993.”

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