ABU DHABI, Dec 7: Some England players including Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison are still undecided about returning to India for the Test series, said coach Peter Moores.

England are camping here and awaiting security clearance for the two-Test series starting in Chennai from Thursday. “I am fairly confident everybody will go if the security report is okay,” Moores was quoted as saying by the Press Association. “But it is a difficult situation and everybody sees things differently. Individuals have different views. The worry is that if somebody makes their choice one way or the other, they get marginalised for it.”

Harmison and Flintoff had expressed their reservation on touring India and they are still haven’t changed their perception. “Players are in different places. There are players I have spoken to more than others. Some make a decision quite quickly. For others it takes a bit longer. Fred has had issues and it’s fair to say Steve Harmison has as well. The important message from me is that we respect people and allow them to have their views,” Moores said. “What I do know about those two guys is that they are massively proud to play for their country and both have missed out on Test match cricket and are both desperate to play again.”

England fast bowler Steve Harmison would probably return to India next week to play a two-Test series if the latest security report was positive, he said on Sunday.

“Though I’ve still got a load of questions about the rights and wrongs of going back, on the balance of probabilities I reckon I will if the security report is positive,” Harmison wrote in a column for The Mail on Sunday.

“Many questions remain unresolved and whatever we hear at our security briefing tonight in Abu Dhabi, I reserve the right to make my own decision to fly home on Monday if I feel it is the right thing to do,” he added.

“If you had asked me at the start of the week whether or not I would consider going back, my answer would have been ‘no’ -- and I wouldn’t have been the only one.

“As time has passed I have become more open-minded, but when it was put to me earlier in the week that a decision to fly to Abu Dhabi should go hand in hand with a choice to go to India if the security report said it was okay to do so, that was a commitment I was not prepared to give without more time and information,” he added.“Now the time to make that commitment is imminent and I can honestly say I remain deeply uncertain about the right course of action.

“On the one shoulder a voice has been telling me: ‘Stuff the terrorists. Get in there, play the tests and give it your best shot’.

“Then the man on my other shoulder pipes up: ‘Think about this. You are going into a country some are describing as a war zone. You’ve got a family and four kids. Is it right to put yourself at risk?’

“The questions come into my head about whether the Indians want us there while they are still in mourning, whether it is right for anyone to be playing cricket out there or trying to carry on as normal when ‘normal’ life has been so tragically disrupted.”

Harmison said his view that he will probably return to India if the security report is satisfactory “probably goes for everyone here but, in the end, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says or anyone else thinks.

“It is only right and fair that everyone makes up their own mind. And if I felt when the times comes it is the right decision for me to go, I will.”—Agencies