Oram questions safety during IPL

The New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram has raised doubts over the safety of playing on the sub-continent and questioned what effect the Pakistan attacks could have on the Indian Premier League (IPL). Oram plays in the IPL for Chennai Super Kings alongside the Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. He said: "I think there are definite questions to be asked. Last year at the IPL it was such a circus feeling and the fanfare was amazing, that you almost forgot where you were. Now reality has hit home and you know that you are in the sub-continent and things that we take for granted, like safety and freedom of doing what you want to do, aren't so readily available over there."

India's cricket board will not reschedule the IPL after the government, worried by Tuesday's attack in Lahore, said their security forces would be preoccupied with general elections. The IPL is due to be staged between April 10 and May 24 whereas India goes to the polls, a multi-phased affair, between April 16 and May 13. India's home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram yesterday called for the IPL to be postponed until after the election, but IPL commissioner Lalit Modi responded saying: "There is no chance of postponing the IPL, I am sure even the home minister would not want the whole country to come to a standstill during the elections."

* With agencies