Praise England for Having Courage to Go

England’s cricketers may have left Bangladesh with their tails between their legs but in one important respect at least they travelled to India for the upcoming tour with their heads held high.

Throughout the early part of the summer clear messages were being relayed from many connected with the England set-up that it was highly likely the trip to the ’desh would be called off on the grounds of security.

Until that point, nothing much had improved, it was said, since Australia called off their two-Test tour there in October 2015, following intelligence reports of the threat of militant attacks.

Back then Cricket Australia had been offered an unprecedented level of security – VVIP, no less – but it was not enough.

And when, on the first day of last July, that threat became the ghastly reality of a terrorist outrage in Dhaka that resulted in the death of 20 hostages and two police officers, the latest in a number of similar incidents that had placed security officers on high alert, the decision to cancel seemed a mere formality.

Tapping into the knowledge of their contacts within the security services, when the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) sent their own team, led by the estimable Reg Dickason, they were fully prepared for him to return with a negative response.