Champions Trophy schedule remains unchanged, BCCI gives green signal

After a lot of dilemma over the fact that whether the Indian cricket team will be a part of the ICC Champions Trophy or not, BCCI finally confirmed their participation. With the announcement of the Indian squad that would feature in the 2017 edition of the Champions Trophy, Team India looked all set for the England tour and the challenge ahead.

Unfortunately for all cricket fans, questions over Team India’s participation arose again after the horrific blast in Manchester, England that shook American pop singer Ariana Grande’s concert. The incident that featured a suicide bomber killed 22 innocent lives while 56 people got badly injured.

The Indian Cricket Board was left in doubt after the tragic incident over the safety of their players when they travel to England. But the International Cricket Council assured all the cricket boards of highest security measures, and the BCCI seems quite happy with it. Therefore the Indian team will fly to England tonight after getting a nod from the BCCI.

“The BCCI sent the ICC a message, raising its concerns about security and accommodation and the ICC responded to it within two hours. They have been sensitised about our concerns,” said Amitabh Choudhary, BCCI’s acting secretary, on Tuesday. “Being terrorist attacks, this is something that can affect every individual on the planet. Therefore, the security concerns are that much more intense. The schedule remains unchanged so far.”

BCCI’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit Chief, Neeraj Kumar was supposed to leave for England on Tuesday night to ensure smooth implementation of all the security measures before the team arrives on Wednesday night. India step into the tournament as the defending Champions and the tournament starts on June 1 in London, Birmingham and Cardiff.

ICC’s statement:

The ICC has also been forced to strengthen its security measures after the attack on Monday. “We operate on advice from our Tournament Security Directorate – in conjunction with the ECB and relevant authorities – to ensure that we have a robust safety and security plan for both tournaments. We will continue to work with authorities over the coming hours and days and review our security in line with the threat levels,” said an ICC statement.  “The security situation has been very much front and centre of our preparations and we constantly review our procedures to guarantee they are as effective as possible to keep everyone safe”