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Colly remains keen on IPL

Image: Collingwood: IPL contract

Paul Collingwood still intends to play in the Indian Premier League despite the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore.

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England all-rounder expects Twenty20 league to go ahead

Paul Collingwood still intends to play in the Indian Premier League despite the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore on Tuesday. Collingwood, 32, is contracted to play for the Delhi Daredevils in the Twenty20 league and expects to fulfil his obligations. The Durham all-rounder was part of the England Test squad that returned to India before Christmas following Mumbai terror attacks. "As things unfold we will know more about what is being put in place by the IPL, but having been back to India before Christmas the security we had felt pretty good and at this stage I'm continuing as normal," he confirmed. "Of course, when something as tragic as this happens, thoughts do cross your mind and you do question things a bit because we've all been in similar situations travelling to and from games like that. "I'd be lying if I didn't say that something like this raises concerns in your mind, but I'm not about to make any decisions on it, the right thing to do is to wait and see how things go from here. "In many ways it is something that will feel very close to every cricketer around the world, but this is something that happened in Pakistan and not in India." Other leading England players scheduled to join the IPL's second season include Ravi Bopara, Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and Owais Shah. England are currently in the Caribbean, preparing for the fifth Test against West Indies in Trinidad, which starts on Friday.

Security advice

Their security advisor Reg Dickason is now a permanent member of tours and was integral to last year's Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in Pakistan, being scrapped after carrying out a safety audit for various cricketing bodies. Dickason assesses risk levels for England for all their overseas ventures and will no doubt now do so on behalf of the board for all those centrally-contracted players scheduled to play in the IPL this April. "The goalposts have changed forever now and we will have to have some more robust plans going forward, I suppose," Dickason said, in relation to the attack on the Sri Lanka team. "Now it is very clear to people that we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best all the time. "There is always a risk whether it's the subcontinent or elsewhere. "Whether it has been heightened by this, I don't know. "It is just a matter of assessing the risk and putting the right measures in place to mitigate them as much as you possibly can. "It is always a work in progress, we assess it a fair way out but we monitor right up to the event and during and if there is any radical change we certainly make changes to the way we operate."

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