'England owe it to cricket to return to India'
Posted on Dec 02, 2008 at 15:41 | Updated Dec 02, 2008 at 19:36
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London: Urging the English cricket team to return to India for next week's Test series, former England captain Nasser Hussain and spinner Robert Croft said by doing so Kevin Pietersen and his men can help the hosts limp back to normalcy after the Mumbai terror strikes.
"England's cricketers owe it to the game, and to India, to go back," Hussain said in a column for the Daily Mail.
"I respect the England team for coming home and taking stock after last week's terrible events. Yet, easy as it is for me to say this sitting here in Chelmsford, my gut feeling is that the England team should announce they are going back to play two Tests in India and fulfil their commitment to this tour and the world game," he said.
"Eventually, the game has to go on, just as people in London had to get back on Tubes and buses after the 2005 bomb attacks. As long as the security people say it is as safe as it can be to return and as long as the Indian people want the tour to continue, England can make a statement by going back. And if I was asked to go there next week in my capacity as a journalist and broadcaster I would go." England abandoned the last two matches of the ODI series after the Mumbai mayhem that left close to 200 dead.
Next week's Test series, meanwhile, has been rescheduled at new venues -- Chennai and Mohali -- but top players like Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison are not very keen to return.
Hussain said while the players' fear was understandable, they should also realise there responsibilities, one of them being to support the game in its hour of crisis.
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