International cricket's biggest Test is security

London

WHEN England's cricket team plays a one-day international match in Bangladesh on Oct 7, it will do so without its captain, Eoin Morgan, who recently opted out of the tour, citing security concerns. Alex Hales, another leading English player, made the same decision; and the team's largest fan group has said that it, too, will follow an official government security warning and skip the tour.

The withdrawals of the players, and the nervousness among fans, reflected serious and increasingly common safety concerns in top-flight international cricket. Pakistan, the world's top-ranked Test team, has not played a match on home soil in more than seven years. Afghanistan, a rising power in one-day internationals, has never hosted an official international match. In Bangladesh, where the national teams are ranked seventh in one-day internationals and ninth in Tests, concerns about terrorism predate the coming England trip - in the past year, Australian cricket officials have called off two tours.