ICC scraps Emirates contingency options

Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has dropped the plans to fly up to seven teams from Dubai to the World Twenty20 Cup in West Indies, after restrictions on flights were eased across Europe after a volcanic ash cloud decreased considerably.

The ICC had made contingency plans for Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, South Africa and Bangladesh to transit through Dubai on Monday before being flown to West Indies on a charter flight. The seven teams, along with England, will now fly directly to the West Indies as originally scheduled.

ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said: "I'm delighted to say that the teams will now fly to the West Indies, as originally scheduled. I want to thank both Emirates and the ICC executive for working so hard to ensure that we had a back-up plan to transport teams to the Caribbean.

"Emirates continues to assist teams with their travel plans and we are extremely grateful for that support."

Ireland, Zimbabwe and West Indies are already in the Caribbean for the April 30 start of the tournament. New Zealand will fly there via the United States.

Meanwhile, in the ICC governing council meeting on Tuesday, Lord Condon, chairman of the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, reported that all the recommendations made by the ICC's Task Force, which looked into safety and security after the Lahore attack last year, were now accepted with all full members having now appointed security directors and the ICC appointing its own full-time security manager in the form of Sean Carroll from Australia.

Security standards

A series of mandatory security standards for international cricket are being drawn up and will be presented to the ICC board for consideration in June.

These mandatory standards are the only remaining recommendation still to be implemented. The ICC places safety and security as its highest priority and as such is implementing security plans around the World Cup 2011 in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.