MELBOURNE, Nov 29: The mayhem in Mumbai notwithstanding, world cricket simply cannot afford to stay away from India, according to former Australia pacer Michael Kasprowicz.

The Mumbai terror attack has already seen the India vs England ODI series being abruptly truncated while the inaugural Champions League has also been postponed.

Kasprowicz, however, believes that irrespective of what happened in Mumbai, world cricket simply cannot do away with India. “It’s impossible to describe how big cricket in India is to an Australian,” said Kasprowicz, who plays in the Indian Cricket League which also was postponed following the attacks.

“They love the game and international cricket cannot afford to leave them out of the game,” he said.

He, however, felt that now the visiting teams would put more importance on pre-tour recce, which is already a norm with most. “It’s become a very important thing in world cricket and I know as far as players and player associations are concerned it’s almost naturally part of any tour these days.

“The thing is at the end of the day it’s just a game and it shouldn’t be anything more than that,” he said.

Recalling a similar incident in his career, Kasprowicz said, “In England in 2005 we were heading to London the next day after the bombings happened and we sat down and spoke about it and a lot of us said ‘that’s it, time to go home’.”

“It wasn’t until security was increased and we were assured of our safety before the decision was made to keep the tour going,” he recalled.

On his ICL career, the Australian said he was not in any hurry to take a decision. “My next ICL season doesn’t start until March and that’s a long way off so I don’t know what the situation will be then,” he said. “Being honest with a family you certainly have to think about these things but at this stage I don’t want to be rushing into any decisions,” he said.—Agencies