COMPARED with the six Chelsea chickens who declined to spend 36 hours in Tel Aviv, England have got off lightly with only Andy Caddick and Robert Croft withdrawing from the Indian tour.

ECB chairman Lord MacLaurin must be hugely relieved as he sewed the seeds of doubt in the first place when he said the tour would be off unless there was a significant improvement in the situation in Afghanistan.

This is not the first case of bungling by the former Tesco boss and his chief executive, the Hon Tim Lamb.

The safety of the players may be paramount, but that is a matter for experts in the field of security. The job of MacLaurin and Lamb is to promote the game and had the tour been called off the repercussions would have been immense.

Cricket's league table for international teams would have been thrown into chaos when it has barely begun, millions of pounds would have been demanded in compensation, and India would not have toured here next summer, greatly damaging the finances of the first-class counties.

None of this matters, of course, if lives are at stake. And we can be pretty sure that at the first sign of real trouble the tour will be abandoned.

It will be no surprise if that happens, but given the right assurances from the Indian authorities it is right that an attempt should be made to fulfil the tour.

The vast majority of people in cricket-mad India will be delighted that the England players are prepared to put themselves at the mercy of an Indian team who are virtually unbeatable at home.

With Darren Gough having long since declared himself unavailable, the withdrawal of Caddick as well is a blow.

But assuming Chris Silverwood is named as his replacement, it will give him the chance to prove that he is a Test-class performer in partnership with his Yorkshire teammate Matthew Hoggard.

Silverwood is as quick as anyone in England and would be a better bet than anyone except perhaps Surrey's Martin Bicknell, who cannot seem to gain the selectors' favour.

Croft's Test record suggests he is no great loss. But with Yorkshire's Richard Dawson already in the party there is no other off-spinner worthy of consideration.

The name of Jeremy Snape has been put forward in some national newspapers purely on the strength of his success in one-day internationals against Zimbabwe. But Snape is not even the best off-spinner at Gloucestershire - Martyn Ball is.

Ashley Giles still has to pass a fitness test and if he comes through it the selectors might decide initially not to replace Croft.

After all, Michael Vaughan can be relied upon to do some off spinning, and even without Gough the Yorkshire contingent could have a big role to play.

Let's hope none of them emulate the rumoured remark of Fred Trueman at a dinner with the Indian High Commissioner: "Ey up Gunga Din, pass t'salt.