England vs India 2021: Absolutely Gutted And Devastated - Lancashire Club CEO Daniel Gidney After Manchester Test Gets Canceled

Lancashire county cricket club CEO Daniel Gidney expressed disappointment following the cancelation of the fifth and final Test between England and India that was supposed to be held in Manchester. Gidney stated that the city has a proud history of having hosted Test cricket dating back over 100 years.

Following an outbreak of covid-19 cases in the Indian camp, BCCI and ECB mutually decided to cancel the last Test of the 5-match series. The series was well poised at 2-1 in India’s favor, but the increasing cases left the visitors pondering over their safety.

“Obviously there are significant financial implications. Obviously, we have reputation issues as well, I mean, Old Trafford has a proud history of hosting Test cricket going back to over 100 years. We are absolutely gutted and devastated. I feel for all our staffs, suppliers, stakeholders, partners and sponsors, and our guests today.”

“But above all the ticket holders, everybody who has spent their hard money amid the difficulties of the pandemic over the last few months, who have been desperate to watch a fantastic game of cricket and unfortunately they can’t do that and on behalf of Lancashire cricket club, I am truly sorry that those fans have been left so disappointed,” Gidney was quoted as saying to Sky Sports on Friday.

“We need to make sure we do our absolute best for future games” – Daniel Gidney

The development was announced just a couple of hours prior to the start of the Test match. This caused inconvenience among the fans as many had already started their journey to the stadium. Gidney assured the fans that they would get a full refund, but he was still devastated that the Test match won’t be happening.

“All the fans and ticket holders will get full refund, we are just working through all the details with ECB at the moment. I can just apologize, very very challenging all the disruption and inconvenience caused to the guests and ticket buyers.”

“It is very challenging to go four years without fans here for a Test match, we are a venue here of over a 100 years, so it is difficult.. something which is a bitter pill to swallow but here we are, that’s what we need to do. We need to make sure that the future games at Old Trafford, we do our absolute best for our customers,” he added.

There were discussions regarding a possible reschedule but the Test won’t be able to capture the same essence as when played during a full-fledged series.

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