Sport | Cricket
England team to return to India
England will return to India for their two-Test series on the scheduled dates, but without several senior players, according to a source close to the team, thus devaluing the series.
- By Scyld Berry, Daily Telegraph Group
- Published: 00:34 December 1, 2008
London: England will return to India for their two-Test series on the scheduled dates, but without several senior players, according to a source close to the team, thus devaluing the series.
Following the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff, and perhaps another bowler in the squad of 15, are expected to pull out during the next two days, citing their children and wives as their prime consideration.
A lot hinges on the attitude of the captain Kevin Pietersen towards returning to India, but if he is persuaded by the England and Wales Cricket Board of the enormous compensation which would be demanded by the Indian board (running into millions of dollars) and falls into line, the rest of the England party will follow his lead.
It is also expected that the England party will practise in the Gulf - either Dubai or more probably Abu Dhabi - then fly directly from there to Ahmedabad for the first Test.
They had been scheduled to play a three-day game in Baroda beginning on Friday, before the atrocities in Bombay forced the cancellation of the last two one-day internationals and prompted England to fly home.
The ECB board are due to meet in the next 48 hours to discuss the security issues, but it is a virtual certainty that security experts will allow England to play the first Test in Ahmedabad starting on December 11 and the second in Madras (Chennai) from December 19.
Security experts have already approved Chennai as a venue for the Champions League, the 20-over tournament for domestic champions which was to have been launched this week.
The International Cricket Council confirmed on Saturday that no request for an independent security assessment had been made by the ECB or the Indian board, which procedure requires if a tour is going to be cancelled for safety reasons.
The England players arrived back at Heathrow on Saturday on two separate flights. Harmison and Flintoff were on the second of the flights from Bangalore.
Harmison has pulled out of England tours before, and was only persuaded to return to England's one-day team last August after a 22-month self-imposed exile.
Further stories have emerged of the narrow escapes of cricketers of various nationalities, in addition to the Middlesex team who were 24 hours from being caught up in the bloodbath at the Taj hotel.
Two Pakistan Test players, Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir, had booked into the hotel before the other members of the Rajasthan Royals, led by Shane Warne, arrived, but the pair went out to dinner and were stopped outside the hotel by the start of the gunfire.
It also emerged that the real heroes inside the hotel were the security men, from South Africa, who were charged with looking after the Champions League teams and officials.
They gathered together as many guests and staff as they could find, and barricaded doors against the terrorists, organising their defence.
Multimedia
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