India vs England: BCCI offers to reschedule cancelled fifth Test, says several rounds of discussions held with ECB – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

The fifth and final Test at Manchester between India and England was cancelled just hours before the start of play due to COVID-19 concerns.

India cricket team’s junior physio Yogesh Parmar had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

BCCI has offered to ECB a rescheduling of the cancelled Test match. AP

The ECB in its statement said that the match was cancelled “Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are unable to field a team and will regrettably instead forfeit the match.”

The statement, however, was changed in quick time and the forfeit word was dropped from it.

The new statement read: “Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are regrettably unable to field a team. We send our sincere apologies to fans and partners for this news, which we know will cause immense disappointment and inconvenience to many.”

The news that India had forfeited the match created some confusion on the final result of the series that India led 2-1 after the fourth Test. BCCI has provided more clarity on the issue with their statement which informs that the board “has offered to ECB a rescheduling of the cancelled Test match” and “Both the Boards will work towards finding a window to reschedule this Test match.”

Here’s the complete statement from BCCI:

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) along with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have jointly decided to call off the 5th Test Match scheduled at Manchester in ongoing India’s tour of England 2021.

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 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.

The BCCI has always maintained that the safety and well-being of the players is of paramount importance and there will be no comprise on that aspect.

The BCCI would like to thank the ECB for their co-operation and understanding in these trying times. We would like to apologise to the fans for not being able to complete an enthralling series.