England Cricket Team Will Return to India Before the End of the Week

The England cricket team will return to India on Thursday or Friday to fulfill their agreement to play two Test matches there later this month. The matches are likely to take place in Ahmedabad and Chennai, although Calcutta has been penciled in as an alternative if the first of these venues is judged to be unsuitable. The warm-up game due at the end of this week will now be played at, or near, the venue for the first Test, which at the moment is due to start in Ahmedabad on Thursday week though everything is dependent on the England and Wales Cricket Board being satisfied about the security arrangements in India following the terrorist atrocities in Mumbai.

The ECB will present the players with a safety report today and are likely to confirm on Tuesday that the tour will resume later in the week. There are thought to be few security worries about Chennai but there is some concern that the team hotel in Ahmedabad is in the middle of the city.

The board chairman Giles Clarke returned from business meetings in Colombia yesterday and chief executive David Collier came back early from holiday in America to take part in a teleconference with members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

It is understood that the ECB are also talking to both governments, high commissions in Indian cities, security advisers and other risk assessment experts in order to be able to give the cricketers a thorough dossier on the safety issue in India.

They have also spoken with the International Cricket Council and the Professional Cricketers' Association, with whom there has been a constant dialog. Hugh Morris, the England team's managing director, has already had informal talks with the players. Thoughts of moving the preparation to Abu Dhabi, or of returning to India in the New Year, to shoehorn the series in before the players fly to the Caribbean on January 21, have been discounted.

The ECB have been bombarded with telephone calls and emails from cricket supporters in India and at home urging them to continue with the tour. Fifteen of the 18 first-class counties have also contacted the board with their support. But England's players, who arrived back home on Saturday evening following the cancellation of the final two one-day fixtures, could be without two of their biggest names. Steve Harmison, who is hardly renowned for his appetite for touring, could withdraw and he might be supported by his close friend Andrew Flintoff, who also has an ankle injury.

Morris hinted yesterday that England would not have their first-choice side for the Tests. "At the moment, nothing has been confirmed with any of the players," he said "We are committed, as it stands, to playing in those two Test matches, subject to safety and security advice. The support we've had in India has been incredible. Cricket is a galvanizing force in that country and that's got to be taken into account as well."

There are strong feelings at the ECB, reflecting those in the country as a whole, that terrorism must not be seen to win the day. But the ECB are also close to agreeing with the BCCI the staging of a five Test series between the two countries in England in 2011 or 2015; India have not played five Tests in England since 1959.

Lalit Modi, vice-president of the BCCI, suggested yesterday that his board would not press for compensation if England remained at home. "I really do believe that it [the tour] will happen. It's just that we need to take it to another city, which we've agreed to do." Modi, who also recalled that the 2005 Ashes series started within weeks of the attacks in London, added: "We can't allow events around the world to deter us, to be afraid to play."

But Modi has sounded considerably less bullish in recent days. He is clearly desperate for England to return and the ECB would then be well placed to use the enhanced goodwill between the two boards.

Whatever the make-up of the England team that will return to India they are likely to be greeted as heroes. The country is desperate not to become another Pakistan, which has not hosted international cricket for a year.

Haroon Lorgat, chief executive of the ICC, yesterday called for England's tour to continue. "I would urge the England Test tour to go ahead and if it does so then representatives of the ICC will be there to show solidarity with the competing teams," he said. "I would also urge supporters of the game to attend them as that will be the best way to send a message to those who seek to disrupt our way of life, that we will not be prevented from doing what we want or what we enjoy."