On September 10th, the 5th Test between India and England was cancelled. This was due to the concerns of a few Indians on the rising COVID cases in the camp. Meanwhile, a number of parties have incurred losses due to the development. In this article, we take a look at the approximate money that ECB lost due to the cancellation of the 5th Test last Friday at Manchester.
The Manchester Test was cancelled due to COVID concerns
During the Oval Test, a few members of India’s support staff tested positive for COVID. Head Coach Ravi Shastri was also one of them. Hence, he did not attend the final few days of the game at the stadium. After the completion of the Test match, India’s second physio Yogesh Parmar also tested positive. Hence, all members of Team India were tested again. All of them returned with negative reports.
While this had cleared the roadblocks initially, a few members of Team India were understandably worried about going ahead with the game. Hence, the boards arrived at the decision that the game will be cancelled. At the moment, there is no clarity on how the fifth game would be played out.
Cancellation of the 5th Test incurred losses for many
Meanwhile, the majority of the parties involved have incurred losses due to the development. As per reports, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has suffered an approximate loss of £40m. The other day, Lancashire Cricket Club, which was supposed to host the game, had to donate the excess and the pre-prepared food to charity.
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly also talked about it in an interview with the Telegraph. He said, “The Old Trafford Test has been cancelled. They have incurred a lot of losses and it’s not going to be easy on England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Let things settle down a bit, then we can discuss and decide. Whenever it’s held next year, it should be a one-off match since it cannot be a continuation of the series anymore.” It now needs to be seen as to the next steps which would be taken by BCCI.
