The England and Wales Cricket Board has written an official letter to the International Cricket Council related to the fifth and final Test against India in Manchester that was cancelled due to India’s withdrawal from the encounter amid Covid concerns within their camp.
Since last Friday, reportedly there have been multiple discussions and arguments between the ECB and its Indian counterpart, the BCCI about the outcome of the Test. However, indicative that there hasn’t been any agreement reached between the two parties, the ECB has sought clarity on the result from the ICC.
A cancelled Test would mean abandonment, which would hand India the series honours with a 2-1 lead. But a forfeiture would be considered as an Indian defeat and lead to a 2-2 series draw. However, the ECB’s real bone of contention isn’t cricketing but financial connotation of the ultimate result.
If the Test stands cancelled, the board will not be able to push for an insurance payout of the huge losses incurred out of the match that never took place. A forfeiture will allow them to claim insurance of around 40 million pounds that they’ve missed out on because of India’s last-minute decision.
According to the rules and the playing conditions of the World Test Championship set by the ICC, Covid-19 is accepted as a justified reason for a match to be called off, given it has majorly influenced a team’s inability to take the field.
The rules might be favouring India on paper, but the ECB can very well argue that it is not the virus but the fear of catching the virus that led to India’s withdrawal. The entire playing group led by Virat Kohli had tested negative twice in the two days leading up to the fifth Test after their assistant physio Yogesh Parmar returned positive on Thursday.
But the Indian counter-argument could be that the risk involved was still huge as most of the players were treated by Parmar ahead of the Test. If some of them had given a positive test after the play started, the Test would’ve been jeopardised anyway, and they would’ve had to enter another secluded bubble to do quarantine.
Either way, the ball is now in the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee’s court. The committee shall soon address the issue and decide if India had a legitimate reason to opt-out of the fixture.
But one thing is certain: the ECB has written to the ICC means there hasn’t been any resolution with the BCCI on this issue. In an indirect suggestion of a rift over the result of the Test, the ECB had, in their initial statement, written that the match would be considered forfeited on India’s part.
But only minutes later, the statement was revised, and there was nothing mentioned other than the information that the Test is “cancelled” for now.
When the BCCI issued its own statement, it offered ECB the option of rescheduling the Test at a later date, potentially next year when India revisit England for a limited-overs series.
The ICC will have to also clarify if a rescheduled Test would still be part of the series or considered a standalone fixture. Either way, the Test will count towards ongoing WTC since the tournament now follows a percentage-based points model.
