Playing the final Test next year is as ridiculous as deciding to play the fifth day of the first match
The suspense over the outcome of the final Test in Manchester has become as tense as the matches before they are actually played. Rather than win, lose or draw, the result is discarded, forfeited or rescheduled, each with its own baggage.
Board of Control for Cricket in India officials have endorsed two of these results; The England and Wales Cricket Board initially claimed it should be the third (forfeit), but is open to talks of rescheduling. It is now a power game between the two boards (and the International Cricket Council), one of which has gotten used to making its way into most things. This is a game of reprehensible certainty.
delicately balanced
One of the best recent series was delicately balanced between The Hundred and the IPL, meaning it could not be started earlier or played later. Test cricket should be more than a filler. Cricket boards banging about their commitment to Test cricket should follow through.
In the words of BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, when his second physio also tested positive, it is difficult not to express sympathy for the Indian players who were “scared”. ‘Managed living standards’ (the term ECB), are psychologically demanding. Also, both the players and the BCCI had IPL to think about.
None of the players tested positive in Manchester. India could have fielded their best team. When the players left for England, they knew very well that the World Test Championship final against New Zealand would be followed by five Tests. But they said they couldn’t move on, and that was it.
Whenever the issue of mental health is raised, officials do not want to be seen as careless or careless. Especially since it is their scheduling that forces the cricketers to play a lot of matches packed in a season. There is something obliged to give, especially in times of covid.
These are strange times, and we must allow strange reactions. The selfish becomes more selfish, money matters more than usual, and entitled people who follow the rules for months feel like breaking them.
There’s no point in playing a “series-complete” later. The tension of a developing chain is lost, construction ends, teams change. Since television money is involved, by all means play one-sided, but don’t artificially tag it on a series that ended abruptly after four Tests. Cricket is played on the ground, not in the board room.
One solution might be to recognize the series as a 2–1 win for India (they were well prepared to win the first Test before the final day’s play was washed away by rain), and both the boards had a chance to win the first Test. To share the loss in revenue. Technically it was India that pulled out.
Playing the final Test next year is as ridiculous as deciding to play the fifth day of the first Test (India needed 157 runs to win).
It was not contracting Covid-19 that the Indian players panicked – they had all tested negative – but “Fear to contract it. In that case the ECB receives no sum insured (they lose around £30 million). The “fear” allows for insurance. In the end, the series is decided by neither Joe Root nor Jasprit Bumrah. Can be done, but by semantics.
Perhaps the Indian team should now visit their support staff with a lawyer. He may have pointed out the legal implications of opting out because of Covid concerns.
At least he could have scrutinized BCCI secretary Jay Shah’s statement: “In return for the strong relationship between the BCCI and the ECB, the BCCI has offered the ECB the rescheduling of the canceled Test match…” Freudian slip (” In return for” can say more about the current relationship between the two boards, perhaps a bit more than Shah intended to reveal. However, there are questions to be asked. About England’s security lapse that has led to ‘Jarvo’ thrice. attack on the pitch, any of which could have gone bad. About Ravi Shastri and Indian players going for a book launch – a super spreader event – without the permission of the BCCI. It will be interesting to see that the board How does it deal with the issue, especially when its secretary wrote to players to avoid crowded areas.
big issue
There is no direct link between the release of Shastri’s book and the cancellation of the play; Nor can players be dragged down by the BCCI if their reluctance is neatly factored into the board’s own hopes of protecting the IPL. But there is a bigger issue here. One of discipline and player responsibility.
Whatever the final decision, one team will feel bad.