India were leading the five match test series by 2-1. The fifth test match was scheduled to take place from 10 September at Old Trafford, Manchester. However, the covid-19 outbreak in the Indian team contingent forced the decision of calling off the test match. India’s support staff were affected by covid-19 and the player’s resisted in coming out in the field. The match was called off 3 hours prior to the start of play. The ECB and BCCI held several rounds of discussion on how to play the match and in the end concluded the cancellation of the test match mutually.
ECB & BCCI have failed to break the deadlock and now the decision is in the hands of ICC to decide the outcome of the series. The ECB will be writing a letter to ICC’s dispute Resolution Committee for deciding the fate of the 5th test.
According to sources, ECB has already written to ICC and stated that they would face a loss of GBP 40 million, most of it won’t be covered if Covid-19 is the reason for cancellation of the game.
From the beginning ECB is forcing India to forfeit the match but the Indian players did not agree to that. The forfeiture will result in sharing the honours of the series and the Indian players do not agree to that. The forfeiture would allow them to claim the compensation from the insurance company. ECB has clearly stated that the fifth test which is postponed to 2022 will be a standalone one and will not be a part of the series.
“Look, the one-off Test that BCCI has proposed will be standalone as Tom Harrison has said. Which means that it is not a part of this series,” a source in the know of things told PTI.
“Therefore, if ICC decides that Indian cricket team which twice tested negative in RT-PCR was “unable to field” the team due to COVID-19, then it will be acceptable non-compliance,” he added.
The decision is now in the hands of ICC and they will figure out on how to break the deadlock. The ICC cricket committee is led by Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble.