Since Lalit Modi’s power base in Indian cricket collapsed, the ECB’s relations with Indian cricket have approached normality. Photograph: Ritam Banerjee-IPL 2010/IPL via Getty Images
England's one-day series in India during October will take place at major grounds, so ending the unofficial cold war that for the past decade has seen the tourists packed off to outlying parts.
Kolkata, Mumbai, Mohali, New Delhi and Hyderabad have been named as ODI venues by the BCCI's tour, programme and fixtures committee. Eden Gardens in Kolkata will also host a Twenty20 international.
Although decisions in Indian cricket are often merely a basis for negotiation, the announcement is proof of a thaw in relations with England.
Their relief that India are again prepared to afford them the respect given to a major cricketing power might explain why the England and Wales Cricket Board have responded so understandingly to India's refusal to use the umpire decision review system in next month's Tests in England, on the grounds that they do not accept the accuracy of Hawk-Eye's predictive ball-tracking technology.
Since Lalit Modi's power base in Indian cricket collapsed last year when he was removed as India's IPL commissioner pending investigations into corruption allegations, the ECB's relations with Indian cricket have approached normality.
Before Modi, Jagmohan Dalmiya, as president of the Indian board, also led England a merry dance, changing itineraries on a whim and seemingly delighting in travel arrangements that left England squads whey-faced and blank-eyed with exhaustion long before they took to the field.
India has nearly 30 international venues, with roughly half of them given Test status, and the appetite for cricket is prodigious at every one of them.The BCCI operates a rotation system and have routinely explained the choice of venues for England's one-day tours on this basis, ignoring ECB pleas to provide tourist cities to attract England's sizeable base of travelling fans.
In 2006, England fulfilled seven ODIs in three weeks, taking in Faridabad, Margao, Kochi, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Indore and Jaipur. Three years ago, they sampled the delights of Rajkot, Indore, Kanpur, Bangalore and Cuttackbefore a terrorist attack on Mumbai caused the cancellation of the tour with matches in Guwahati and Delhi unfulfilled.
Long before the terrorist outrage, one senior Indian official had remarked of that infamous one-day itinerary over a glass of wine in a five-star hotel: "Even I have not been to most of those places." But England returned to India to fulfil the Test series amid heavy security, with the captain Andrew Strauss prominent in persuading several reluctant players, Andrew Flintoff among them, that the tour should go on. They have earned the gratitude of the BCCI as a result.
Hyderabad, of the cities named on this year's itinerary, will cause some anxiety as England carry out their routine security assessment. It suffered outbreaks of communal violence last year, but it would take a marked decline in the situation before England were advised not to tour.
