Once every year, a familiar legend unfolds in the clockwork-accurate, cricketing world. This year, the carping critics of the Indian Premier League have been blessed with a second bite in the cherry. And they’re groping themselves, make no mistake.
Season 14 of the world’s biggest, richest, most scrutinized and most entertaining cricket tournament had to be hastily halted in mid-May following a series of bio-bubble breaches, which led to several COVID-positive cases in the franchise environment. Gave. After much deliberation and a frenzied search for a possible window for the unfinished half of the competition, the Board of Control for Cricket in India scheduled the mid-September to mid-October stage for the remaining 31 matches to be held in the same three . Locations in the United Arab Emirates as of the entire season 13 – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
Read also: Engineers can’t blame Shastri, Kohli
In many ways, it was a win for most, at least for India’s traveling and match-weary stars, who haven’t had any taste of the 20-over format since late April.
India were to play the final of the World Test Championship against New Zealand in England in June, before a five-Test series against the hosts in August-September. The IPL will help them get back into Twenty20 mode ahead of the T20 World Cup to be held in Oman and UAE from October 17.
The close of the scheduled final Test against England, the close between 14 September and the start of the IPL, 19 September, prompted the BCCI to inquire from their English counterparts, the England and Wales Cricket Board, if they agreed to either. can. Plan two – either limit the series to four Tests, or start the game a week early. Neither favored the ECB; While the former would have compromised their earning potential, the latter would have shadowed their latest game, The Hundred, whose inaugural edition debuted just before the start of the Test series.
Read also: Vaughan said the reason for the cancellation of IPL
So much for the backstory. We are here now, due to the reasons the Manchester Test has been cancelled, we will be back soon, and England’s three Test party withdrew from the IPL. Let there be no confusion, there is no connection between the two incidents.
Regarding cancellation. As is well documented, Indian head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for the pesky virus at the end of the fourth Test at The Oval. Bowling coach B Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and physiotherapist Nitin Patel, identified as three of his close contacts, were also forced into self-isolation as India spent the last two days with their main aides in the England capital. There was a place in the dressing room without the staff. .
Following their stunning victory at The Oval, India were set for a shot in history – no team in the country has won more than two Tests in a series in England – at Old Trafford. Their preparations suffered a setback a day before the Test when another physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive. Parmar had worked on injuries to Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Ishant Sharma, among others, in the lead-up to the final Test. As soon as the news of Parmar’s positive test broke, the Indian players went into isolation on Thursday, ending an alternate session on the eve of the Test.
The RT-PCR tests conducted soon after Parmar’s developments all came back negative, but from an Indian perspective, the damage was done – not so much to his body as to his psyche. There was growing reluctance within the team to take the field for the final Test, due to unfounded fears that, given the virus’s gestational period, one or more players could test positive after play resumes, and many can infect others. . Hardly the ideal state of mind in which to be approached for so many Test matches on the line, anyone who knows even a little bit about the game would agree.
The relationship between the BCCI and the ECB has fluctuated wildly in the past, depending on the spectrum from cordial to openly hostile. The hectic talks on Thursday failed to break the deadlock; With the BCCI throwing its insignificant weight behind its players, the ECB was too seized with the imminent financial knock to recognize that they had no reason to climb the moral high horse, as they themselves decided to tour South Africa. Was left to such concerns last December.
The ECB’s anger was reflected in an initial release announcing the cancellation of the Test, in which they clarified that India had lost the game. Within minutes, an update release cleared up the inaccuracy. Test and series status hang in the balance, although India have offered to make good the inevitable event of cancellation by playing the Test at a mutually acceptable date at some point in the future.
This was clearly not enough to appease the troublemakers within the English cricket scene, which included a section of mostly entitled former cricketers and media personnel. While the more subtle, balanced and authoritative voices in these two fraternities have struck the right chords, the miscreants cannot be bothered, their ridiculous accusations extending to questioning India’s commitment to the longest format.
Perhaps, they have all been easily deaf to Virat Kohli praising the virtues of Test cricket time and again. Perhaps they too have become blind to the encouraging brand of cricket displayed by the Indians since last December, be it in Australia, against the English at home, or this summer. No team has played more Tests than India in the last nine months; No team has achieved a more memorable victory in this period. In fact, by the time 2021 comes in history, India will have played Tests in Australia, England and South Africa in the same calendar year for the second time after 2018. For a team that allegedly prioritizes the IPL at the cost of everything else, that’s not too shabby, is it?
Would India have agreed to postpone the final Test by three or four days had the IPL not happened immediately? Possibly. Eventually, India agreed to postpone the start of the ODI series in Sri Lanka in July after a short outbreak in the home camp, although both the personnel and the head coach (Rahul Dravid) were quite different then. But are they unreasonable for not risking their IPL tenure by refusing to play in Manchester, knowing that danger may lie in wait? Only the cynic will say yes.
It is the same group of detractors who are pointing the blame at the vicious Shastri, who a week ago was the first quartet to contract the virus. The release of his first book at a London hotel ahead of the start of the fourth Test is being attributed to the head coach testing positive. There is no evidence of this, firm or weak. The ECB has asked about the Indian management not seeking exemption from them for the said event. Home Board CEO Tom Harrison was a guest at the launch. enough said.
Sometime in the third week of July, England returned to normalcy. Wearing of masks was no longer mandatory, spectators were allowed at full capacity at indoor and outdoor sports and entertainment events. It appears that, after the failure of Manchester, the only Indian cricketers expected to live up to the high standard were. This, from a board and a country, didn’t seem fair to haul Daniel Jarvis aka Jarvoo 69, the YouTube ‘star’ who was allowed to attack the active zone of play in three consecutive Tests – at Lord’s, the so-called The home of cricket, in Leeds and then at The Oval. The Indians were not happy with these serial breaches of security, but decided not to make it a song and dance. But who cares, right?
Which brings us to the British demand for confiscation. Again, for the sake of clarity, it is worth pointing out that the ECB is not chasing the WTC points. Their motive is purely economic.
It goes without saying that the Manchester cancellation has set both the ECB and Lancashire County Cricket Club back several million pounds. Broadcast rights and fan-refunds sit at the top of that chart, coupled with the fact that the ECB was probably not responsible for such an incident and did not insure the COVID-cancellation of matches.
Possibly irrelevant, but it’s not out of place to recall that last year, Wimbledon was the first major event of the year’s third Grand Slam to be canceled because the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club were the only ones insured against a pandemic. A forfeiture would formalize India’s reluctance to play as the reason for the Manchester no-show, and attract insurance payments to compensate for the loss.
If you break it down to the brass tanks, it’s not hard to figure out that there’s really no fault where things stand. Not BCCI, not Indian players, not ECB, definitely not IPL. The only ‘criminal’ that fits the bill is the invisible virus, and there’s enough evidence to suggest it doesn’t care either way.
get all IPL news and cricket score Here
.