Reports | ECB ask ICC to start adjudication process on cancelled Manchester Test

The fifth and final Test between England and India was called off about three hours before the scheduled start of play, with growing concerns in the Indian camp of the outbreak of Covid-19 within the group.

Yogesh Parmar, the team’s assistant physio, had returned Covid-19 positive on Thursday. That wasn’t long after the head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar had tested positive during the fourth Test at The Oval, following which the trio had been asked to isolate in London.

The ECB have now written to the ICC to make a decision on the fixture.

While there are still chances of rescheduling the game, the ECB chief executive Tom Harrison had stated on Friday "any rescheduled match would be a standalone match". That was after the BCCI  had requested ECB to find a window to find a window for the called-off game.

The ICC regulations for the WTC grants teams permission not to play under certain circumstances.

The conditions state: "Any matches that do not take place due to the Acceptable Non-Compliance of one or both Parties (as defined in the World Test Championship Competition Terms) shall not be taken into account in the calculation of the Points Percentage."

A standalone game would mean that the series would be awarded 2-1 to India, with the points distribution for the World Test Championship 2023 table to be decided accordingly. However, if ICC's Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) considers that India forfeited the match, the game would be awarded to England, thereby leaving the series drawn at 2-2.

Harrison, on Friday, had also stated that the ECB regarded the players’ mental health and well-being as a prime reason for the cancellation of the Test, and not the covid-19 outbreak, since there was none of it within the playing group.

More to follow ...