Guarded response

Butcher: understanding

In terms of those people who have lost their lives there are a lot more important things going on than games of cricket.

Mark Butcher
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Former batsman Mark Butcher says England's players must be free to decide on an individual basis whether to return to India for next month's Test series.

The squad is currently returning from the sub-continent after a series of terrorist incidents in Mumbai led to the postponement of the last two one-day internationals.

The Board of Cricket Control for India still expects Kevin Pietersen's side to return to play two Tests in December, the second of which has now been switched to Chennai from Mumbai.

But as in 2001, when bowlers Robert Croft and Andrew Caddick pulled out of a tour of India on safety grounds, Butcher feels each player is within their rights to withdraw.

"It was pretty much in the aftermath of the 9/11 atrocities and some of the players on their own will decided they weren't willing to travel to the sub-continent in the current climate," reflected Butcher.

"Personally, I could understand their decision. I went on the tour. I perhaps didn't have as much pressure from home not to go. We'd been given assurances that we'd be taken care off and we were to the extent that we had heavily armed guards in our hotel corridors, outside our hotel bedrooms 24/7 throughout the whole month-and-a-half, two months we were there.

"It's not a great circumstance for a cricket tour but it went ahead. This case is very different in that things have happened in India. This is a world away in terms of New York and the things that happened there for that trip.

"This one is very close to home. Some of the players have narrowly missed being involved and being there. The Middlesex team were meant to be flying out to the Taj Hotel. It's a difficult one."

Sensible decision

Although Surrey skipper Butcher expects the England and Wales Cricket Board to come under intense pressure to fulfil the tour, he added: "I would be incredibly surprised if England got back on the plane again to go back to India once they've got home.

"Kevin Pietersen has already said that he wouldn't put pressure on his players to make a decision against their will; I think once those players get home back to their families I think they will find it very difficult to go back out.

"In the end I guess it will be put up individually to players to make a decision. That's what's happened over situations that have nothing to do with cricket in the past and there's every possibility that's what will happen again.

"I hope that a sensible decision is made in terms of player safety. We are talking about a game, after all, and if people feel that their safety is compromised or they are being put in a position which is unreasonable to expect someone to do for the sake of a cricket match then the right decision will be come to."

Tight schedule

With England pencilled in to play a warm-up game against an Indian Board XI on December 5 prior to the first Test, Butcher is not sure that the logistics add up.

"It's such a moving situation at the moment that none of us really know exactly what is going to happen," he said. "The Indian Cricket Board will be very keen for the series to go on, I'm sure there will be wranglings about whether or not the players are keen to go back and we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears peeled on the situation.

"But let's not forget that we are talking about it in cricketing terms. In human terms and in terms of those people who have lost their lives there are a lot more important things going on than games of cricket."