'Being asked to go back is the last thing on my mind' - Harmison

Steve Harmison has said the decision each player will have to make about whether to return to India will be among "the most important of their lives" but insisted now was not the time to make rash judgements.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, he said: "I'm sorry, but whatever is being asked of us in the next few days, at the moment, the idea of being asked to go back out there is the last thing on my mind. This is beyond cricket. This is beyond anything. It's all very well for people back home to say we should carry on with the tour, but none of what has happened has anything to do with cricket.

"I don't know what sort of things they have been broadcasting back home, but we were sitting watching the live pictures on the local TV channels here and they were just shocking, terrifying.

"The corridor down which people were dragging the dead was a corridor I had been walking down 10 days ago. An area was on fire next to the gym we had been training in 10 days ago. The restaurants we had eaten in 10 days ago were under attack, with people barricading themselves inside in terror.

"And I suddenly thought of the room I had stayed in 10 days ago; I visualised the layout, the bed, the window, the TV, the bathroom, the wardrobe ... and I thought of some poor soul trying to work out where to hide to try to stay alive.

"How anyone can say that we should be carrying on with the tour in the circumstances is beyond me. I can't say now that I will definitely not come back or that I definitely will.

"If the board say they want us to go back the players have about 72 hours to come to the most important decision of their lives. All I hope is that nobody thinks we will take it lightly."