Tour back on, Bucknor canned

Many cricket fans will breathe a sigh of relief today with the announcement that the BCCI have no plans to cancel India’s tour of Australia – yet.

According to Melbourne’s The Age, an Indian source has revealed that the tour was never going to be cancelled in the first place.

“The tour will go on, we never said it won’t,” a senior BCCI source said.

“A formal announcement will be made tonight.”

The news comes after the ICC announced today that Steve Bucknor, the umpire in the middle of some of the controversy will not officiate in the third Test between Australia and India at Perth. New Zealand’s Billy Bowden has been selected to replace the West Indian.

The tour boycott came after a frustrating second Test at Perth, marred by bad umpiring decisions, claims of poor sportsmanship and most significantly, charges of racism, of which Harbhajan Singh was found guilty and banned for three Test matches.

India have indicated that they will fight the ban and have already lodged an appeal with claims Sachin Tendulkar had sent a text message to the Indian board calling for the boycott, pending an appeal.

“Harbhajan is innocent and I can assure you on this. In this hour of crisis, the Board should stand by him. I suggest we should play in Perth only if the ban is lifted,” Tendulkar apparently wrote.

However this has since been denied by the Indian camp.

“Sachin Tendulkar has not sent any SMS to (BCCI president) Pawar on this issue. He had called up to clarify this point,” BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said.