Mumbai Test moved to Chennai

London: England players will be allowed to make their own decision on whether to return to India for a two-test series next month after the militant attacks in Mumbai, captain Kevin Pietersen said on Friday.

England cut short their one-day series to fly home on Friday but are scheduled to return in December.

The first test is scheduled to start on December 11 in Ahmedabad and the second was planned for Mumbai from December 19 but will now be switched to a new venue.

"We will make every effort to come back and play in the tests but at the end of the day if it's not safe we won't be coming back," Pietersen told BBC radio.

'Right decision'

"I'll never force anybody to do anything. A man is a man and he can make his own decisions for himself."

"It's the right decision right now to get the boys out of here, to get them to their families, even if it's only going to be for a couple of days."

He said postponing the series until after Christmas were not practical and plans were in place to set up a new practice match in place of the scheduled three-day game in Baroda from December 5.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan said he and the rest of the performance squad would have been in Mumbai, and possibly in one of the hotels targeted by gunmen, if they had not been moved to Bangalore.

"It was only at the last minute it was switched, I don't know why," Vaughan wrote in his Daily Telegraph column.

"We could have been there in one of those hotels when they were attacked."

"All our test kit is in the Taj Mahal hotel where one of the sieges has been going on."

New Delhi (AFP) The second Test between India and England has been moved from terror-hit Mumbai to the southern city of Chennai, the Indian cricket board said yesterday.

A statement from the board said the dates of next month's Test series will remain unchanged even as England prepared to fly home on Friday after the last two matches of the one-day series were cancelled.

The first Test will be played as scheduled in the western city of Ahmedabad from December 11-15, while Chennai will host the second Test from December 19-23.

The Test series will be preceded by a three-day practice match in Vadodara from December 5-7, the statement from board secretary N. Srinivasan added.

It, however, did not say if England had accepted the itinerary.

England opted to fly home after coordinated militant attacks in Mumbai from Wednesday night left at least 140 dead.

It was more than 48 hours before security forces were able to kill the terrorists.