IPL RICHES ARE BEHIND THIS FARCE
Tragedy for Test cricket that Indian board put their T20 jamboree first
It is difficult to know what is more insulting to the 100,000 people who would have watched the final test at Old trafford. the late cancellation that treated them with utter contempt or the suggestion from tom Harrison that it has nothing to do with the IPL.
Who is the chief executive of the ECB kidding? this debacle, at a time when test cricket has been gloriously fighting back against every obstacle put in front of it with a compelling series, has everything to do with the franchise competition that is now indisputably more important to the game than all international cricket.
Yes, there was clearly anxiety in the Indian camp when the physiotherapist who has been in close contact with most of the players tested positive for Covid on Wednesday night and joined Ravi Shastri and two of his coaching staff in isolation.
And, of course, there is every sympathy with players forced to live an unnatural life for months on end in bio-secure bubbles or, more recently, ‘managed environments’ to ensure that an overcrowded schedule of matches can carry on through Covid.
But there is no way this series decider would have been called off on the morning of the first day had the majority of India’s players not been flying to Dubai next Wednesday for the resumption of the richest tournament in cricket.
No India player with an IPL contract wanted to risk playing in this test, then testing positive and being forced to stay in England for another 10 days, so missing the restart of the tournament in the UAE on September 19.
that is what means the most to them. that is the event they refuse to jeopardise at any cost. And that, increasingly, will take precedence over test cricket in the future, particularly when the IPL is enlarged to 10 teams, probably next year.
that is a tragedy for test cricket, those thousands who have been robbed of watching a thrilling climax to this series — surely if it is played next year, it has to be as a one-off game rather than a decider — and those of us who dearly want international cricket, particularly the longest form, to retain primacy instead of a future full of franchises.
Remember, the all-powerful Indian board asked the ECB to reschedule this fifth test or even cancel it as long ago as May when the IPL was suspended with 31 games remaining.
they knew the resumption would follow too quickly for comfort after this test. India never wanted to play this game here and now in the first place.
the positive PCR test of Yogesh Parmar was the trigger India’s players needed to up sticks and get out of here as soon as possible even after they had all returned negative tests themselves en masse on thursday evening. there really should have been no reason why they could not play on once those test results were returned.
that is the criterion that has governed every game this season as cricket continues to navigate the complex Covid world. Why should that change now?
India did not respect this series in pulling out yesterday and they did not respect test cricket either in flouting Covid guidelines ahead of the fourth test. this whole outbreak in their camp could well have been started by the presence of Shastri along with captain Virat Kohli and several players and staff at a book launch at a London hotel attended by more than 150 people two days before the Oval test.
It was a breach of protocols that privately angered those at the ECB who have done so much to keep the show on the road in the last 18 months, not least with three tests at Old trafford last year that salvaged millions of pounds of revenue for the game. What a way for Lancashire to be rewarded for all they did then.
there were also reports of India players being out and about in Manchester on thursday, the day their practice was cancelled and they were meant to be confined to their rooms at the Radisson Hotel. It is really not good enough.
Comparisons will be made with England’s premature departure from South Africa in December when their bio-secure bubble at the Vineyard Hotel was breached. But there were differences. that came before a ball had been bowled in an ODI series that was due to be played without any spectators. Vaccines had not been introduced then either.
Clearly cricket has reached bursting point and players have the power to decide how long they will put up with Covid protocols and whether they even want to play for their countries any more when there is so much money to be made elsewhere.
Something has to give and it is a highly difficult environment for administrators but it was a bit rich yesterday of Harrison to also say there was far too much international and domestic cricket. Why on earth did the ECB introduce a new format in the Hundred to provide even more cricket then?
Harrison also said this cancellation was down to the mental-health issues of one of the teams rather than Covid, which is even more ridiculous than saying it had nothing to do with the IPL. Good luck getting that one past the insurance companies.
the bottom line is that this was a desperately sad and depressing day for cricket and one that was capped by Yorkshire’s scandalous decision to try to bury their report into Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of institutionalised racism on a day when cricket’s attention is on the other side of the Pennines.
Really, such transparent tactics should be treated with the contempt they deserve.
As should those responsible for badly letting down everyone due to be at Old trafford.