Manchester mystery: Forfeited, cancelled or postponed?

Rohit Mahajan

Lives have been lost and people mentally and financially ruined by Covid-19, so the cancellation — or forfeiture, or postponement — of a mere Test match must not make us lose our sense of proportion. A game has been scratched — no one died, as Boris Becker, then two-time defending champion, famously said after losing early at Wimbledon 1987.

Yet, the circumstances in which the Manchester Test was forfeited/cancelled/postponed need to be examined, for it seems that some key individuals — professionals who are paid highly to do their jobs properly — let cricket down.

As of now, it seems that head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar caught the infection in London during a book launch — of none other than Shastri’s book! It is outrageous that Shastri, the worldly-wise, most grown-up man in the squad, a man of 59 who ought to be a father figure to players half his age, should turn out to be the culprit.

Books can wait, the more pressing job of coaching the national team and shepherding it out of trouble during these days of Covid-19 must be the priority for Shastri and his assistant coaches. Holding a book launch at a venue where outside public was allowed in was a serious error of judgement, irrespective of whether that was the source of the infection.

After Risbabh Pant tested positive during the three-week break between the limited-overs series and the Test series, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) had asked the squad to stay away from crowds in an opened-up England. Shastri — the head coach, no less! — ignored this advice. Not his finest hour.

Tug of war

The status of the match was in a tug of war between BCCI and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). ECB first stated that India had forfeited the match: "India are unable to field a team and will instead regrettably forfeit the match." This implied a defeat to the Indian team, resulting in the series ending 2-2.

Then, after urgent prodding by BCCI, ECB amended its statement and removed the word ‘forfeit’ from it — now the Test was cancelled, not forfeited, meaning that India had won the series 2-1. Finally, it was stated that the match was going to be rescheduled — ie, postponed indefinitely — and that the two boards would work to find a window on their calendar for it.

Reports suggest that the Indian players were very apprehensive about the match since the physiotherapist who helped them at the Oval Test, Yogesh Parmar, tested positive. The main physio, Nitin Patel, had been placed in isolation since he was considered a primary contact of coach Shastri — talk about irresponsibility flowing from the top.

Another factor that could have led to the postponement is this year’s IPL, halted by Covid in May but scheduled to resume in Dubai on September 19. The money around the IPL would dwarf the money involved in the Manchester Test — is that the reason the players/BCCI are keener to avoid any possible danger of infection by playing the fifth Test in England?

We’ll perhaps never get all the answers, but what is certain is that with their coaches and physiotherapists laid low by Covid-19, the players can’t have been in a great frame of mind to play a high-intensity match to decide the series.

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