If the fifth and final Test of the England-India series in Manchester is adjudicated as a “cancelled” affair by the ICC, the ECB is set to face huge financial losses due to visitors’ fears and worries of taking the field amid COVID-19 scare within their camp.
Even as the final game of the five-match Test series got called off on Friday, there is no clarity yet whether it’s a case of abandonment due to coronavirus or forfeiture in India’s camp.
The specification of the result is of utmost importance for the England and Wales Cricket Board, which has an insurance cover for forfeiture from the opposition camp but not for the eventuality of a game called off due to a viral outbreak.
On the cricketing aspect, an abandoned fixture would mean the Test series gets awarded to India 2-1 while a forfeited encounter would level it up 2-2. But that is not ECB’s immediate concern, what worries them is the heavy effect of the ICC decision in favour of India.
The ECB will be able to claim insurance payout on lost revenue of about 41.6 million dollars (approx), stated ESPNcricinfo in a report, if the match is deemed forfeited by the sport’s world governing body. But that money could stay lost in case of cancellation.
Importantly, the playing conditions for the World Test Championship accepts the Covid outbreak as a justified reason to call-off a Test match, provided there is a “significant impact” on a team’s ability to take the field with an XI.
But in India’s case, it was not exactly the outbreak that led to them deciding against playing the Test. The worry of individuals in the playing group returning positive during the game resulted in a cancelled Test.
Indian players had all turned out negative in successive tests conducted since Thursday when their assistant physio Yogesh Parmar tested Covid-19 positive. But the threat of some of them proving affected by the virus during the game loomed quite large.
“There is a tangible difference between those things [forfeit or cancellation]. This is not a Covid cancellation. This is a match cancelled because of serious concerns over the mental health and well-being of one of the teams.
There is a difference. But it doesn’t make a difference in respect of a ticket buyers; they will be paid back in full. It makes a difference in terms of the ECB balance sheet.”
ECB CEO Tom Harrison said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Harrison had indicated – and this was revealed by the Indian team’s close confidant Dinesh Karthik, the out-of-favour wicketkeeper-batsman, to Sky Sports – that the Indian decision is based more on the anxiety of potential positive tests during the game and the possibility of having to enter another strict bubble just ahead of second half of IPL 2021.
However, Harrison clarified that the Indian decision was not based on IPL:
“Let me be super clear,” he said. “I don’t think the IPL has anything to do with this. This is not a situation which has been created by the rescheduled IPL. I fundamentally do not believe that for a second.”
Whatever it is, the ICC decision on the result of the Test is crucial for ECB, who will face heavy financial losses if the game isn’t rescheduled as they’ve been offered to do at a later date by their Indian counterparts – BCCI.
India are due to revisit the UK next summer for three ODIs and three T20Is. It raises the possibility of a Test being added to their itinerary for the trip.
Whether that Test is part of the series we’ve had or a standalone entity is unknown. But that is the least of ECB’s concerns at this stage.
