Terror threat now a fact of life on England tours

Foreign office advice was always taken before the team visited any potential hot-spot, and still is. But it was the tour to India in 2001, within a couple of months of the 9/11 attack on America, which signalled a visible increase in protection.

With players worried about travelling abroad at a time of heightened tensions, the ECB hired a firm of security experts to carry out a survey of the situation on the subcontinent before agreeing to the trip going ahead as scheduled.

Even then, two members of the squad - fast bowler Andrew Caddick and spinner Robert Croft - opted out and were replaced.

On the tour, the players were accompanied everywhere by two security experts, with each venue being checked out in advance.

That arrangement has continued ever since - even in apparently safe countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

The players are being accompanied on their current travels around India by Reg Dickason, a burly Australian who was a policeman in Melbourne before becoming a security specialist. In addition, there is always a heavily armed Indian-organised security operation wherever the team are staying and playing.

Dickason has been regularly hired by the International Cricket Council and the Professional Cricketers' Association to check out worldwide venues.

It was Dickason's report on the security situation in Pakistan which convinced players from England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand that they should not go to India's neighbour for the Champions Trophy in September. Despite pressure from Pakistan and the ICC for the tournament to go ahead it was cancelled.

Generally, though, England have travelled as scheduled - and seen out tours despite scares along the way.

A year ago, in Sri Lanka, there were fears their visit would be abandoned after a bombing campaign in Columbo mounted by the Tamil Tigers. Dickason's view was that the trip could continue, however, and it passed by without incident.

Indeed, once England arrive somewhere they tend to stay put. Back in 1984, before terrorism was a global problem, they did leave India after that country was plunged into chaos by the assassinations of prime minister Indira Gandhi and a British Deputy High Commissioner. But the team only decamped to nearby Sri Lanka and returned to India soon after to complete the tour.

And when Nasser Hussain's team refused to travel to Zimbabwe in 2003 for a World Cup match, security fears - although given as the main reason - were only part of the story. What concerned most of the players even more was the humanitarian situation in the country.

Tours of England have not been without their problems, however. Australia's players held meetings in 2005 following the bomb outrages in London and some of them were clearly concerned about staying in the capital.

The nearest England players have come to danger in a city situation had nothing to do with terrorism.

It was in Sydney at the end of the 2006/7 tour of Australia when armed thieves raided England's hotel and the team's physio, Dean Conway, was robbed at knifepoint. But Dickason's presence prevented several players from being caught up in the drama, with the security expert leading them to safety.