Manchester Test postponed indefinitely amid Covid-19

The fifth and final Test in Manchester has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak within the India squad. In a statement released on Friday, the BCCI said it was in talks with the ECB over conducting the match at a later date.

“The BCCI and ECB held several rounds of discussion to find a way to play the Test Match, however, the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Indian team contingent forced the decision of calling off the Old Trafford Test Match.

“In lieu (sic) of the strong relationship between BCCI and ECB, the BCCI has offered to ECB a rescheduling of the cancelled Test match. Both the Boards will work towards finding a window to reschedule this Test match.”

It remains to be seen how the boards can work out a window for the match, though one could possibly be carved out when India return to England next year for a scheduled limited-overs series.

This development seems to have ended the possibility of India having to forfeit the Test match, though further developments are awaited.

News that the match wouldn’t begin as originally planned came in hours before the scheduled toss. “Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are regrettably unable to field a team,” the ECB said in a statement. “We send our sincere apologies to fans and partners for this news, which we know will cause immense disappointment and inconvenience to many.”

The development came on the back of intense discussions between the BCCI and the ECB after India’s assistant physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar returned a positive Covid-19 test on Wednesday.

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