Pietersen praises collective move

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England captain Kevin Pietersen insists he did not have to persuade any of his Test squad to fly back to India following the Mumbai terror attack, BBC reports.
Before boarding a flight to England's holding camp in Abu Dhabi, he added that if necessary there would be a collective decision to come home.
The first of two Tests is scheduled to take place in Chennai from 11 December.
"It's fantastic the guys want to go and rub shoulders together with India at a time of need," said Pietersen.
"It's a huge stance by this England team to jump on the plane and go and do the business."
Once they have reached Abu Dhabi, the squad will await security reports before travelling to India on Monday.
Meanwhile, Indian airports were put on high alert on Thursday following warnings of possible airborne attacks. Security was stepped up at city airports across the country, including the one in Chennai.
Indian Air Chief Marshal Fali Major said: "This is based on a warning which has been received by the government and we are prepared as usual."
ECB managing director Hugh Morris said he was in the process of finding out more information about that development.
"We are obviously concerned but what we need to do is find out the situation," he said.
"I've spoken to our security team out in Chennai and when more information is fed back to me that will form part of the security audit."
A 23-man party is scheduled to arrive in Abu Dhabi at about 0300 local time Friday (2300 GMT Thursday).
The hastily-arranged camp will include two full practice sessions Saturday and Sunday before a potential trip to India Monday.
Another two sessions would take place in Chennai but there is no time for a warm-up match before facing world cricket's in-form nation.
Pietersen spoke of "buying ourselves more time in Abu Dhabi", but was optimistic the Tests would go ahead.
He went on: "There's a collective now. The guys are just waiting on reports from Reg Dickason, the ECB security adviser, Sunday night. If there are any alarm bells ringing the collective decision will be to come home.
"But we are very focused on playing red-ball cricket. Everybody has become a bit more open-minded about their decision. They've spoken to family members and they have realised that it's pretty huge to go back to India.
"I didn't persuade anybody, I respect everybody's individual concern and respect their decisions - they are men at the end of the day. I think it's very clear that nobody was told what to do."
There had been speculation Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison would refuse to go back to India.
Pietersen explained: "They became a lot more open-minded which is fantastic because they are two big players and we certainly want them in our team."
India were beating England 5-0 before the seven-match one-day series was abandoned having earlier earned a comprehensive 2-0 home victory over Australia in a Test series.
England have not played Test cricket since beating South Africa at The Oval on 11 August, although they lost the series 2-1.
"Our preparations are going to be compromised in many ways through circumstances," said coach Peter Moores. "We're in Abu Dhabi, where we're not going to play [a match].
"The facilities, I think, are going to be OK but we haven't had a chance to check them out, which we normally would, and the timeframe is very short.
"We've got a lot of work to do to get mentally in the right place and also physically and technically ready to go."
Ryan Sidebottom will miss the tour after failing to recover from a side strain picked up during the abandoned one-day series.
Fellow seamer Stuart Broad has stayed behind to receive treatment for a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the first Test but will join up with the squad in Chennai, where his fitness will be reviewed ahead of the second match in Mohali from 19 December.
Ten of the 23 tourists come from the performance squad and, after England's three-day warm-up match in Baroda was cancelled, they will help prepare the Test side for competitive action.
The 20-year-old Yorkshire leg-spinner Adil Rashid had been added to the performance squad, which includes Ravi Bopara, Sajid Mahmood, Samit Patel and Liam Plunkett.
"We'll have a bowling camp in Abu Dhabi and there will be 10 seamers and some spinners, who we can use to help us practice," added Moores.
"We need to give the batsmen some decent time in the middle to get the best practice they can.