Clouds — not those of doubt over England’s tour of India — hovered over the Shekh Zayed Stadium and brought along heavy rains, curtailing Kevin Pietersen and Co’s practice session on Saturday. Inclement weather confined the players to their hotel rooms until afternoon, denying crucial hours at the nets for a team that is terribly short of both practice and confidence.But whether or not the lack of preparation will haunt England will only be known late on Sunday when their board, after going through the elaborate security report from consultant Reg Dickason and inputs from ECB managing director Hugh Morris and Professional Cricketers’ Association chief Sean Morris, takes a final call on the tour.Virtual nodThe two Morris were in Chennai to take stock of the security situation, even after Dickason had inspected and virtually given his nod to the venue of the first Test. They fly back to the Middle-Eastern emirate on Sunday, armed with written undertakings by concerned authorities and will share their assessment before the verdict on the two-Test series comes.On Saturday, they held discussions with the BCCI and city police officials who promised to put a fool-proof security set-up in place for the team and support staff. Sean and Hugh also examined the Taj Coromandel Hotel, where England will stay, before proceeding to the MA Chidambaram Stadium, where the Test is scheduled to begin from Thursday. “As per the detailed discussion in the morning, we have handed over a statement of account detailing the arrangements at each of the places. This is in pursuance of the discussions held by the commissioner with Reg Dickason, security chief of ECB,” police sources said. “Morris said he would hold discussions with the team management stationed in Abu Dhabi before giving his final say to us,” the sources added.If England get the go-ahead, the team will fly down to the city only on Monday, leaving themselves with a little over two days to get match ready. And that, clearly was a cause of concern for coach Peter Moores, who felt that practice had been “compromised”. “The practice has been compromised quite a lot, we are practising in the wrong country (Abu Dhabi) but the lads are in good spirits,” Moores was quoted as saying by the BBC. “It is more of a mental shift we need now — we have been playing one-day cricket for a long time and we need to get ready for Test cricket, and the disciplines of the longer form of the game. We cannot use the compromise to practice as an excuse for poor performance,” he said.Meanwhile, the England coach also said there was a willingness in the team to return to India, despite the recent terror strikes in Mumbai. “There’s a general will within the team to go and play these Test matches,” Moores said. “Because, one, people will be representing their country but also in the situation we find ourselves after what happened in Mumbai. There’s a strong feeling that we want to go and play these Tests.” ‘To each his own’However, he said it wasn’t binding on anyone and the players were free to decide for themselves. “But everyone will have different opinions and if someone doesn’t want to go we will respect that. Hopefully we can take our full-strength side there, compete, win the series and have a good Christmas,” he added.
