THE flight of England's cricketers from India as the body count of the Mumbai terrorist attacks was still taking place is reported as a postponement, not an abandonment.

Time will tell.

Some months down the line, the whole question about where cricket is going must be addressed. Has the sport any other home likely to generate the billions that India can through its television revolution? Six months of cricketing uncertainty England's remaining fixtures in India The final one-day internationals, due to be played today in Guwahati and Tuesday in Delhi, have been cancelled. The remaining tour match and Test matches are still due to go ahead. ... more

The English were getting a thrashing on the ground anyway, following on from Australians finding India too hot to handle on the cricket fields.

The Bollywood re-branding of a game that symbolises sport on the subcontinent, backed by the economic boom, made India the new epicentre of the sport.

More than that, American basketball and baseball were starting to make inroads into the land that seemed to be re-inventing itself. And Fifa president Sepp Blatter was calling India the 'sleeping giant', the next frontier football should cross.

Indeed, in Fifa House in Zurich two weeks ago, I chaired a panel of leading Indian entrepreneurs, media and club owners debating whether the country's culture and traditions were a help or a hindrance to developing football there.

The fear of extremism simmered beneath the surface of our discussion. Everyone could see the desire to tap into a nation of 1.2 billion people, both for its human potential and its technological and economic 'miracle'.

We were all aware that cricket is king, and other sports had to first foster goodwill before they could dip into the money pot.

We discussed the poverty gap, the religious divide and the fact that India was moving at two speeds - the ambitious, electronically-smart youth and the traditionalists thinking that slowly, slowly was the way to build up anything that could last.

Yes, we talked about terrorism. But in Pakistan, rather than India.

We did not foresee the Mumbai atrocity, any more than England's cricketers did. They had left some of their kit in the Taj Mahal Hotel, where they were due to return next week.

Those players, now home with their families, departed with very mixed messages in their ears.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the young captain of India who was enjoying beating the Aussies and the Brits back to back, spelt it out better than anybody:

'We are entertainers,' he said. 'But we should not be entertaining at a time like this.'

Lalit Modi, the entrepreneur orchestrating India's new cricket euphoria, sees no reason why this should be anything more than a temporary halt. India will clean up Mumbai, England will return to the scene of their cricketing good-hidings, and it is Bollywood, Bollywood all the way to the bank of India.

Maybe he is right. Throughout Northern Ireland's terrorism, sporting exchanges defied the bomb and the bullet. It was as if sportsmen and women were a protected species. On one visit there, I was assured by an IRA spokesman that the terrorists had no quarrel with sport and would not touch it.

But the Munich Massacre - the slaying of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Black September militants during the 1972 Olympics - told us that sport had no absolute immunity from extremism.

On Wednesday, Shaun Udal, a spin bowler born in England, was packing his bags to lead Middlesex to India.

'I watched on TV, and got goose bumps down my back,' he said. 'We were 24 hours from being in the Taj Mahal hotel and the fact that they were looking for British people makes it more frightening.'

Will he go there when the situation is deemed secure?

'I have three children to think of,' he replied. 'They are my main priority.'

We will soon know if the Middlesex and England tours are a casualty of terrorism, or whether the players will be persuaded that India is the place to be.

One excuse for the whitewash England were taking in the 50-over series was the remark by all-rounder Freddie Flintoff that they felt disadvantaged by being prevented from joining the multi-million dollar 20-20 series which engaged many of the world's top cricketers last summer.

Flintoff insists he was talking of the experience of slam-bang cricket in that environment, not the personal fortune on offer.

Some months down the line, the whole question about where cricket is going must be addressed. Has the sport any other home likely to generate the billions that India can through its television revolution?

Could the new boom be transferred, even for a year, to a presumed safe haven? I don't believe so. India is, or was, a unique place at a unique time.

The economic downturn, and now the horror of Mumbai, will come into play before the games go on.

stsports@sph.com.sg