India pledges tight security for NZ tour

New Zealanders are entitled to feel a little uneasy whenever teams are due to tour to the sub-continent, and this week's bomb blasts in Mumbai have resulted in a sense of déjà vu. New Zealand have no games in Mumbai on their tour, but after exposure to bombs outside their hotels in Sri Lanka in 1992 and in Pakistan last year where 14 people were killed, including 11 French engineers, there is a predictable sense of "here we go again".

But, despite the cancellation of three previous tours, and the refusal to expose the team to the prospect of terrorism in Kenya during the World Cup, New Zealand Cricket have not reacted to the latest incident.

Indian cricket officials have, however, and have said that security of the "highest order" would be in place for the tour which starts next month. SK Nair, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has said that no approach had been received from New Zealand Cricket yet. "They may ask for our feedback on security and we'll tell them they'll be provided security of the highest order," he said. "There'll be no compromise on that."

Even before the blast, which killed 52 people in Mumbai, the BCCI had security arrangements in hand with all their associations, not only for the Test series, but also for the triangular series with Australia that follows. "We will not adopt a soft approach at all," said Nair. "We will be very strict because even one incident can tarnish the country's image. We've given strict instructions to all the associations to follow our guidelines on security."

Martin Snedden, NZC's chief executive, said that their security advisor Reg Dickason would be kept up to date with security plans for the tour, but he would not be making a visit to India to inspect the venues. Snedden said that NZC were waiting to hear from India but there would be no knee-jerk reaction to the bombings.