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Late into Sunday night the England cricket squad received the much-awaited security report from adviser Reg Dickason that measures the Indian Cricket Board had put in place were sufficient to recommend the tour went ahead.
In their Abu Dhabi hotel the players were now left with a decision of conscience having been assured that a personal request not to travel would not be held against them.
To tour or not to tour, that was the question?
In the end it was unanimous; the whole squad would be in India to contest the two match Test series. This looked highly unlikely when the team left India 10 days ago after the horrific events in Mumbai and there had been serious mumblings about some of the senior players being reluctant to go back which was understandable once they had been reunited with their families.
The main focus of these rumblings surrounded Harmison and Flintoff both of whom captain Kevin Pietersen has stood by loyally in the past two years and this loyalty was repaid.
Pietersen would have wanted his two most experienced players in the team not just for the contribution they would make but also to keep the entire squad intact. If these two doubting members made the commitment it would be unlikely others would not follow suit.
For these efforts of persuasion Pietersen deserves much credit as does the ECB managing director Hugh Morris who made the initial decision to pull the team out of Mumbai. Many considered this to be the wrong one if the aim was to continue the tour but Morris has been rewarded for his clear and decisive judgement and will have gained the confidence of the players which will be essential for the stressful fortnight ahead.
Make no mistake these will be circumstances that few if any will have encountered in their sporting life.
The Indian Cricket Board and the government will secure this team with the full might of the establishment.
Security will not only be tight and comprehensive it will also be massively visible and the attention on it will be extraordinary.
Hotels, grounds and cavalcades will be protected like no other event previously as the Indians will understand the commitment that has been made and understand this tour is now as much about symbolism as it is about the cricket.
The cricket itself will be of secondary importance which in a strange way will benefit this England team.
It has been a disastrous few months for Pietersen's men having lost the much maligned Stanford match and then suffered a humiliating 5-0 defeat in the shortened one-day series in India. With the hosts coming into the games on the back of beating world champions Australia it was always going to be a tough proposition but at least now the pressure is off the actual results.
They will still need to perform but without the preparation required, no Test match in four months, and the hysteria that will surround the games, not a great deal will be expected of them.
In times of difficulty the England selectors are usually not very radical in their choice and it is likely that they will resort to a familiar line up especially in the batting; Cook, Struass, Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood and Flintoff will probably make it up.
This will mean Owais Shah will miss out and no one would deny in more usual circumstances he would replace the very out-of-form Collingwood and, I for one, would welcome his inclusion.
Whatever the result, the players have made a courageous choice to return to India and should be rightly applauded, but broader questions will be raised about future tours and the decision to travel, or not, based on security fears.
There will be many onlookers in Pakistan who will see these circumstances as odd given the recent cancellation of the ICC Tournament there and the spectre of the Indian Premier League and its riches hangs over all cricketing decisions.
These will be difficult times for sport in general and not just cricket.
But the return of the England team will be a fantastic symbolic gesture for the fanatical Indian fans and no one would argue that it is not a positive thing after the trauma they have suffered as a nation in Mumbai.
Hopefully, the cricket will be of a high standard but even it goes against them the England players have won already even before they have stepped onto the field.
