Tuesday, October 23, 2001 Today, a Test series should have been coming to a bubbling climax in Karachi, but New Zealand Cricket called off their tour of Pakistan. This decision did not lead to their being branded as yellow-bellied wimps. Next week, West Indies will go to Sri Lanka for a Test series which they thought about cancelling but opted to go ahead with. This did not lead to their being dismissed as reckless fools. Tours of Sri Lanka are on, tours of Pakistan are off, and tours of India are somewhere in the middle.

Where exactly, nobody can say with much certainty. Lord MacLaurin, the most senior figure in English cricket, said one thing at the beginning of last week, and another, after having his arm twisted by Jagmohan Dalmiya, at the end of it. All the senior players in the Test squad have indicated, either openly or in code, that they are disinclined to go. The junior players, with more to gain in terms of experience and less to lose in terms of family, are mostly in favour. Ian Botham says he loves India but there's no way the tour can go ahead; Tony Greig, another star player turned pundit with a feel for India, says don't listen to Botham (click here for his comments). If you were an England player, you would be confused as well as concerned.

Sport is theatre, and whenever possible, the show must go on. In this case, it clearly is possible. The chances of the team being attacked are greater than usual, but still very slim. Cricket in India, like football in Britain, is the people's sport, which tends to make it less attractive to terrorists. Wisden's India editor, Sambit Bal, has pointed out that Mumbai is a thousand miles from Kabul -- further than London is from Sarajevo. But the Tests are not happening in Mumbai. Two of them are taking place close to the Pakistan border, at Mohali (a suburb of Chandigarh) and Ahmedabad.

In a huge country, at a delicate moment in world history, this is ridiculous. Those Tests could easily be switched to Calcutta in the east and Chennai in the south -- which is where they should have been scheduled in the first place. There was talk that the up-country venues were the Indian board's revenge for being sent to Hove and Taunton during the 1999 World Cup. If so, it was ill-informed as well as petty: the majority of India's games in that tournament, including the big ones against England and Pakistan, were staged at Test grounds, and in areas with plenty of Indian supporters. England wouldn't dream of drawing up an itinerary for a visit by India that didn't include a Test at Lord's; similarly, the BCCI should have offered England more than just a one-dayer at their greatest venue, Eden Gardens, Calcutta -- not to mention the Wankhede in Mumbai or the Chepauk in Chennai.

Switching venues wouldn't make the tour 100% safe, as Nasser Hussain and (initially) Lord MacLaurin were optimistically asking. Nobody is 100% safe anywhere, whether crossing the road or sitting at home, opening the post. But a couple of changes to the itinerary would give the players some peace of mind, which is what this is really about. If the danger of a terrorist attack is slight, it is shadowed by another, much greater danger: the possibility that the tour will be blighted, that those who do go will develop a siege mentality. India is a fabulous place to visit but it can be intimidating at the best of times. Personal space is a luxury. The internal flights are not the smoothest in the world. Even if the players are not a target, they will feel like one. And their loved ones may well be worried sick. The wives are going to have a say over the next 48 hours, and rightly so. If the Thorpe family, or the Caddicks, or the Whites, decide that it is not worth it, that's up to them. It doesn't make them wimps.

At Wisden, we have a pitch in both continents. We have two offices in India, and will soon be launching a new, Asian version of our magazine, Wisden Cricket Monthly. We are sending a reporter from our London office to cover the tour, and she is in no doubt that she wants to go. But then it will be easier for her to keep a low profile, in the Foreign Office's much-quoted phrase, than it will be for Hussain or Marcus Trescothick.

If in doubt, the players should go. But they are quite entitled to ask for a change of venues -- either to the east and south, or to another country altogether. ICC has just given the go-ahead for Tests in neutral venues, and there are several cricket cities around the world with big Indian-descended populations who could make Tendulkar and co. feel very much at home. The first Test could be at Durban, since India will be in South Africa already (and won't have played a Test there); the others in Port-of-Spain and Georgetown. Go on, admit it, Mr Dalmiya: it would make for an interesting series.

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