ECB calling (-worma)

So, after much drama-through-media on yet another issue, we do get to know the official ECB stand on the Indian tour itinerary debate. And as some had suspected and argued, its a 'bit' removed from the cause that the English media is fighting for.

As heard during a t.v. interview of Mr John Carr of the ECB during the England-Pakistan match today. John Carr is also the same ECB representative who came to India for the tour related discussions with the BCCI. Thanks Ravi Krishnan for the speech-to-text transfer :-), and I add some emphasis from my side.

He said ECB was mainly concerned with logistics of travel across different venues. So they have requested interchanging ODI venues/dates to make travel easier. About the warm-up games, he was saying traveling to Jamshedpur, Agartala and Dharmasala may not be very easy (in his words - accessible) for the English team. No mention of media/tourists but just the team. Also, when asked about playing warm-ups in Pakistan, he said ECB has no intention of doing that. He said if BCCI goes ahead with the schedule as is, ECB has no choice but to accept it.

And some of the suggestions in this regard, that I had in mind and often discussed on this forum with you all, are:

1) Give them convenient practice venues. And by convenient I mean close to the 'base' of their setup, close to the test venues, or atleast convenient in travel and other facilities(and this time actually find out about those, rather than just 'checking websites for rates of hotel in Agartala').

2) Allot the ODIs such that the ones in same region get covered together..for example Kochi, Vizag, Cuttack, Guwahati, Faridabad, Indore, Goa in that order. Or another such chain can be made based on easy flight/road connectivity (whatever the means of transport for that leg of tour)

3) No change in test venues.

4) Let ECB inspect the venues and address the valid complaints.

Sounds simple...what say?