Reports: Adamant to play, BCCI denies ECB proposal to forfeit Manchester Test

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have reportedly denied England and Cricket Board’s (ECB) proposal to forfeit the fifth and final Test in Manchester, scheduled to be played from September 10.

ECB’s proposal comes in the backdrop of another member of the Indian camp – assistant physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar – returning a Covid-19 positive Test on September 9. Parmar tested Covid positive when already India’s head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and physio Nitin Patel are all under isolation after Shastri fell prey to the virus during the fourth Test at The Oval.

A Times of India report claims that the BCCI argued against the logic of forfeiting the Test and “the discussions began to border on a serious clash of opinions before matters came to rest.”

The Indian team’s practice session scheduled on September 9 was cancelled after Parmar’s positive test result, while the press conference, which was meant to be attended by either Virat Kohli or Vikram Rathour, was not conducted either.

India adamant to play final Test

It has been stated further that the Board was in touch with the team management and senior cricketers including India captain Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma during the discussions, who are “in no mood to relent even if it meant playing the game under the Covid cloud.”

Meanwhile, the BCCI asked both the senior cricketers Kohli and Sharma to “hold their horses” and engaged in talks with the ECB, who finally relented.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was unsure about whether the proceedings would go underway. “We don’t know if the match will happen at the moment. Hopefully, we can get some game,” said Sourav Ganguly at the book launch of ‘Mission Domination’ in Kolkata and was quoted by News 18.

“If it can be argued that the Nottingham Test match could’ve gone either way, it can be argued that Manchester could go either way. Now, the point is, what if the threat of Covid goes either way? In that case, the Test match doesn’t happen, the IPL is risked and there’s a cascading after-effect to everything that ensues,” said a source in favour of the Test getting cancelled.