England's tour of India looks set to go ahead according to Sky Sports, with the likelihood of a warm-up match taking place in Abu-Dhabi. The ECB has sent their security advisor Reg Dickason to Chennai, the venue of the first Test against India starting December 11, to prepare a report on the safety situation in the country and how best to implement it for the touring team.
However, BCCI officials said Dickason is not expected to conduct his security audit until Wednesday at the earliest, and therefore any final decision on the tour will have to wait until then. "He had sent us a set of conditions before his arrival and during the inspection, these things will be discussed," board sources told .
These conditions are believed to involve blanket security from the same Indian special forces who stormed the Taj Mahal Hotel to end last week's siege in Mumbai. The Hindustan Times reported that the ECB had asked the BCCI for a group of commandos to accompany the team at all times, an emergency evacuation plan in case of a terrorist strike and a security blanket over England's dressing rooms.
The ECB, who have been in close consultation with the Foreign Office ever since the team returned to England, have reiterated that the entire tour decision rests on the outcome of the security report, and will not be rushed into making a final announcement. According to Sky Sports, however, the team has been told that the decision to tour now rests with the players themselves.
Sean Morris, the England players' association (PCA) chief, is believed to have attended a Foreign Office briefing on Tuesday, along with the ECB's England director, Hugh Morris, and was due to meet with the players later in the day to discuss the issues that arose. However, the PCA's "No. 1 consideration" remains the security report that is still awaited from Dickason.
The Indian board shifted the two Tests from their original venues - Ahmedabad and Mumbai - to Chennai and Mohali following the terrorist strikes in Mumbai. Despite the itinerary changes, the ECB could send a weakened squad to return to India with three senior players - Andrew Flintoff, who also suffered an ankle injury during last week's fifth ODI, James Anderson, whose wife is pregnant, and Steve Harmison - believed to be disinclined towards touring.
"I'm delighted to hear the news that the BCCI are willing to accommodate concerns over the venues but primarily we must focus on what the security reports say," Morris was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph. "But we will not make our decision until security and duty of care towards the players is assured." The paper also reported that while the warm-up game in Vadodara, scheduled to start on Friday, had been cancelled, an alternative venue could host it and that the ECB was also considering a short training stint in the Middle East.
The prospect of England returning to India was not welcomed by everyone, however. Speaking to BBC Radio Four, the former ECB chairman, Lord MacLaurin, spoke out against a resumption of the tour. "I think the ECB will probably say yes and I think it will be very sad," he said. "I don't think any security people can actually say it's going to be safe. If it was left to me, I wouldn't go."
However, Nasser Hussain, who captained England's tour of India in 2001-02 shortly after the September 11 attacks in New York, wrote in the Daily Mail that the team had an obligation to get back out there and make a statement. "The country is so important to cricket and to the Indian people that we owe it to them to go back and play, as long as every possible precaution has been taken."
Justin Vaughan, New Zealand Cricket's chief executive, sounded an optimistic note on future tours to the subcontinent and said it would be impossible to constantly sideline Asian teams based on security concerns.
"It's a pretty scary future for the game if you think (listed events) are not going to go ahead," Vaughan told the New Zealand Herald. "India and Pakistan are core countries in terms of international cricket and it seems bizarre if we couldn't tour there".
New Zealand are set to tour Pakistan and India in 2009 and 2010 respectively and Vaughan said those tours will be crucial to their preparations for the World Cup in the subcontinent.
