Australia's high-profile cricket Test series in India will begin as scheduled in Bangalore in October, even though a tennis tournament was called off there over security fears.“There is no change in the itinerary. Bangalore will host the first Test,” said Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah.
India's four-match series against world champions Australia opens in Bangalore from October 9-13. The remaining Tests will be played in Mohali, New Delhi and Nagpur.
A string of bomb blasts last month in Bangalore, the country's high-tech hub in the south, left one person dead and a dozen injured.
Australia last week joined a boycott of next month's Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan due to security concerns, forcing the International Cricket Council to put off the eight-nation tournament till 2009.
The ATP confirmed in a statement issued Wednesday that the tournament, due to begin on September 29, had been cancelled.
“The ATP board can confirm that it has regrettably accepted a petition from the Bangalore Open to suspend the 2008 event due to the local promoter's security concerns,” the statement said.
“The total event prize money will now be paid into the ATP player pension fund.”
Local media reports speculated that tennis organisers had cited security fears because they had failed to attract top players for the event.
India's only other ATP event, the Chennai Open in January, attracts star players like world number one Rafael Nadal, who use it to prepare for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the season.
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