England To Return Home Briefly After Attacks

Board secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement the final two one-day internationals in a seven-match series had been called off.

England will go home from India after militant attacks in Mumbai on Wednesday but plan to return for next month's two-test series, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Thursday.

"We feel that, even if it were for a few days, the home environment is the place where the players should be," ECB managing director Hugh Morris told Sky Sports News.

"The test matches are in place and unless we get security advice to the contrary we will be playing those tests."

Earlier Indian board (BCCI) secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement the final two one-day internationals in a seven-match series had been called off.

The sixth one-day match was scheduled for Guwahati on Saturday and the final game in New Delhi on Dec. 2. India were 5-0 up in the series.

Thursday's decision followed Wednesday's events in Mumbai when a group of militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades burst into luxury hotels, a hospital and a railway station, killing more than 100 people.

BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi said the test matches would definitely go ahead but the second match in Mumbai would be moved.

The first test is scheduled for Ahmedabad from Dec. 11-15 and the second in Mumbai from Dec. 19-23.

Modi said the board had been told the England players were going to leave the country.

"We have no issue with that at all, we were told the players were going to leave the country. We were not sure where they were going," he told Sky Sports News. "If they are going home we are very happy they are going home."

Next month's Twenty20 Champions League, featuring teams from Australia, South Africa, England, India and Pakistan, has been postponed. The unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) cancelled their match in Ahmedabad.

Australia's tour of India in September also started in controversial circumstances after a series of bombs in New Delhi killed at least 20 people and injured 90.

The latest attacks have raised further doubts over India's tour of Pakistan early next year following a spate of suicide bombings in Pakistan over the past few months.

Pakistan officials have suggested swapping Pakistan's 2010 tour of India or even staging the series in a neutral venue.