The Wait is Over; England's Back!

No more speculation. No more- will they? Won't they? The England team is here, with Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and all. And judging by Kevin Pietersen's smile, perhaps some of the scars and haste in which England left Indian shores will have diminished to allow life and beauty of cricket help heal wounds and allow the normalcy of life creep through.

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There were always going to be two reactions to England deciding on a full strength team returning to complete its Test duties after the truncated one day series.

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One was the playing up the fact that the England team had taken the moral high ground as much as Hugh Morris emphasized. But the fact of the matter is that there would have been no right or wrong because being as close in timing and area of where the England team would have been, either decision would have had to have been respected in the immediate future.

The other viewpoint was of the fact that the only reason England really felt pressurized to tour was not to appear like a reluctant lot and thereby, hamper their future chances in the commercial hub of cricket. With the blooming of the IPL and the ICL, and England having missed the bus on both for the large part, there were allusions that England would not want to look conservative and thereby, hinder their financial progress.

Naturally as the view of watching the England cricket team arrive in Chennai sent a little wave of cheer, there were do condescending voices such as those of former Pakistan cricket Rashid Latif who accused England of double standards stating that they had come only under monetary compulsion.

(Even if they did, who would blame them? After all Mumbai itself is a hub that attracts men who come in search of a livelihood and stay on despite the perils associated with big cities.)

He also did not lose the opportunity to home in the point that "if England could come to India despite even after what happened in Mumbai, India could surely tour Pakistan."

Comparing chalk and cheese never made sense, but certainly with England's coming easing some of the tensions over the east versus west safety concerns, perhaps there could just be a thaw in the relations between neighbours. Time will tell as yet again cricket holds the burden of expectations hoping to do what endless dialogues didn't.