Cricket facing its toughest Tests

IT is essential the game reacts with a united front in the wake of last week's horrific events in Mumbai
DIFFICULT AS it is when the TV keeps showing destruction and orchestrated murder on a grand scale this piece shall ignore the human aspects of the past week in Mumbai – ADVERTISEMENT
 
they are covered elsewhere in this publication – and concentrate on the effect oADVERTISEMENT
 n cricket.

And what effects the marauding gunmen, grenades in hotel lobbies and battlefield scenes have had. 

The England Performance squad missed the carnage by chance, their training camp moved at the last minute from Mumbai to Bangalore, and are joining the full England one day squad who are already home; the Champions League is postponed, with Middlesex luckily escaping being in the Taj Mahal hotel by 24 hours; luminaries such as Shane Warne are concerned about playing in India again and next month's two-Test series against England is hanging by the slimmest of threads. 

Kevin Pietersen has publicly stated that no player will be forced to tour and now they must wait for the various security reports. 

"The BBCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India] will provide one and the ECB (English Cricket Broad] security officer Reg Dickason will compile one, but I'm not sure there is time for an independent (report] because if we are going to play the series the players need to get out there pretty soon and start preparing," said Sean Morris, chief executive of the Professional Cricketer's Association. "It was thought that with the families in such distress it was best to get the players back home, allow everyone to cool down the emotions and then calmly examine the situation and make a well informed decision about the Test series, but the basis of that decision will come from the security reports."

Such is the mistrust of Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president and shotgun mouth, that the BCCI report will probably be taken with a pinch of salt by the players. Of more importance will be the thoughts of ECB security officer Dickason.