It was more than just about sport.

The unanimous decision of England's cricketers to return to India for the Test series starting on Thursday was a triumph in so many ways.

It was a triumph for the courage of men such as Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison, who had wrestled with the urge to rejoin their families rather than return to a land devastated by the attacks on Mumbai, which killed more than 180 and left even more maimed.

It was a triumph for England captain Kevin Pietersen, South African by birth but who has shown a steady hand and taken an intelligent and fearless stance in leading his men through the most difficult of times.

It was a triumph, too, for Hugh Morris, England's managing director of cricket, who had stressed that anyone not wanting to go would receive his unqualified support and understanding, even though he was steadfast in his belief the tour should go on.

In the main, however, it was a triumph for the human spirit.

All of which I realise is easy to say if you are not one of the ones returning to a country that is in the grip of a growing pattern of terrorist violence, especially one that appears to be targeting westerners.

Yet in a world in which professional sport is so often seen as being played by men who know the price of every sponsor's contract but the value of nothing that truly matters, the England cricket team have put right and responsibility before personal need.

It would have been so easy to hide behind the fears of their families. After all, Harmison has four young children and the run-up to Christmas is the last time anyone would want to inflict worry on their loved ones.

It would have been easy to hide behind the mourning of the Indian people. To argue the tour would be an intrusion into their grief.

There is no doubt about it. Running for home would have been the easy option.

But commuters in London did not stay behind their locked doors after the bombings in 2005, which killed 52 people. They went to work as usual, fearful at first but with an indomitable will not to give in to the terrorists.

The same spirit was seen in New York after the events of 9/11 in 2001.

Normal people going about their normal lives is the best antidote to fanatics who seek to rule by the bullet.

That is why, once security fears at the Test venues were allayed, England's cricketers going to Chennai and then on to Mohali for the second Test, or possibly Bangalore, was so important to the global war on terror.

Yet the cricketing spin-off could be just as significant.

There is no better team-bonding exercise than dealing with adversity. No better way of forging lasting ties and a clear sense of direction.

No better way, perhaps, of preparing for next year's Ashes series against Australia than playing the teak-tough Indians on a tour demanding such a spirit of togetherness.

Already Pietersen has risen in our estimation. Now the rest of England's cricketers, still smarting from the embarrassment of their 5-0 thrashing in the aborted one-day series, have a chance to redeem themselves on the field while at the same time returning a sense of normality to a cricket-mad nation.

It is rare sportsmen get the opportunity to use their essentially meaningless talents for the greater good.

England's cricketers have seized that chance. They deserve our respect and India's gratitude.

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