India yet to accept invitation to play in Melbourne: Lele

Contrary to reports in various newspapers and agencies, India has not yet accepted the invitation from the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) to play a three match one-day series in Australia in September.

Speaking to CricInfo from Baroda, Jaywant Lele, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said "We have not yet accepted the invitation to play in Australia. Everything is subject to the decision taken at the working committee meeting to be held soon."

It has been widely reported in both countries that India would travel to Australia to play a three one-day series at the Colonial Stadium in Melbourne.

Lele added, "the dates reported are incorrect, the invitation that we have received from the ACB is not for the 10th, 12th and 14th of September. We have been invited to come over on the 14th, 16th and 18th of September."

Clarifying on another point, Lele went on to add, "we have been invited to play only two games at the indoor facility, the Colonial Stadium in Melbourne. The third match is to be played at the 'Gabba in Brisbane," said the BCCI secretary.

Lele seemed distinctly irritated at the fact that it was suggested that he confirmed India's participation in the series.

"Who said that we confirmed anything to the ACB? We can't take a decision like this by ourselves. Nothing has been confirmed yet."

With tour itineraries being chopped, changed and finalised at the last moment, the BCCI has come under fire in the past for moving schedules around. This time, the Board is playing it extremely safe, not announcing any tentative dates or venues until the matter is discussed at the working committee meeting.

Colonial Stadium hosted its first cricket match in August last year when South Africa played a three-match series against Australia at the venue. A first in cricketing history, the indoor matches were a hit with audiences, the players and the media alike. While exhibition matches had been played indoors, no match sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) had ever previously taken place in an enclosed facility.

The $A250 million state-of-the-art stadium was originally built to host Australian Rules Football. However, keen to innovate, the ACB moved quickly to embrace the new centre, even going as far as to produce a drop-in pitch for the occasion.

Australian skipper Steve Waugh was particularly supportive of the venture and commented then, "We are going to be part of history. It's almost a different form of the game playing indoors and we will be the first. Maybe in 100 years' time they will look back and say this is the time one day cricket really took off."

Official attendance records for the three-match series pegged the total number of people present over its duration at a total of 94,278. While that might not seem like a huge number in the subcontinent, it certainly depicts a healthy attendance for any other venue. As it happened, the matches themselves were closely fought, with one being tied and the series ending in a 1-1 result.