Last Update on: September 13th, 2021 at 09:22 pm
Former Pakistan player Salman Butt feels that England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is worried about recovering the loss of the Manchester Test between England and India rather than rescheduling the match.
The fifth Test, which could have been a series-decider game for both the teams, was called off hours before the toss after the COVID-19 scare disturbed the Indian camp.
On the eve of the final Tets, India suffered a heavy blow after their second physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar contracted the dreadful COVID-19 virus after which all the players had to go under immediate RT-PCR Tests which turned out negative.
Yet Indian players were skeptical to play the fifth Test in such an environment and hence they collectively wrote a letter to the Indian board to convey their decision.
I feel ECB are more worried about the £40m loss: Salman Butt
Eventually, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) mutually agreed with their counterpart England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to call off the match, whose future is yet to be decided and so is the fate of the series.
Butt thinks that ECB does not care about the World Test Championship points and is only focused on recovering the insurance amount.
“I feel they are more worried about the £40m loss. They only want the insurance claim, and haven’t even talked about the match [in the request]. They have only said that if you (the ICC) write this (that the match was forfeited), we’ll recover the money from insurance. They aren’t saying something like, ‘For the sake of God, please play the match, the points are very important, we don’t want to lose the series but equalise it at 2-2’. They haven’t written anything like it,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.
England would not have written to the ICC if the matter was resolved: Salman Butt
On September 12, ECB had officially written to the ICC to decide the fate of the cancelled fifth Test against India at Old Trafford, it indicated that both the national boards were far from reaching a settlement. Butt said the matter remains unresolved as ECB has brought ICC as an intermediary in the dispute and the former Pakistan captain is looking forward to the apex body’s decision.
“It’s unresolved, which is why it’s being described as a ‘dispute’, and if it was resolved, England would not have written to the ICC… If England had accepted BCCI’s offers for T20s or Tests, they wouldn’t have gone towards the dispute committee. Indian players also had their concerns when their physio tested positive… It’s not straightforward and we’ll have to see how ICC resolves this,” Butt said.
India were leading 2-1 in the five-match Test series before it was called off.
Also Read: England vs India 2021: ECB Chief Tom Harrison Hints At Manchester Test Being Held Next Summer
