Sourav Ganguly contradicts himself, says 'rescheduled' Test to be part of incomplete series
Hours after indicating that if the ECB accepts BCCI’s offer of rescheduling what was the final Test of the series between England and India and play a Test match later in the near future will be a standalone Test, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has now said that the rescheduled Test will be part of the original series.
However, he has not ruled out playing the extra limited-overs games in order to help the ECB and Lancashire reduce the burden of financial stress after the cancellation of the final Test.
"We are ready to play extra ODI and T20Is and that’s not an issue. Just that the Test match that will be played later will be the fifth match of the series. We want the series to be completed as this will be our first series win (in England) since 2007," Ganguly told PTI in an interview.
He also rubbished the criticisms mounted by former England players and press that Indian players and the BCCI preferred IPL over Test cricket and rated it as the “ultimate format” of the game.
"The BCCI maintains that Test cricket is the ultimate format and we won’t compromise it for anything," Ganguly asserted.
The last Test of the series between India and England was cancelled in the eleventh hour after Indian players refused to participate in the fear of catching Covid-19. A late decision that did not allow spectators information before they could abort their travel plans and other logistical issues that arose out of the cancellation created chaos for the Lancashire county and the ECB.
The series of events in the Indian camp started midway through the fourth Test when all the main support staff such as the head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar tested positive for Covid-19 in the lateral flow tests. However, the fielding coach tested negative in the RT-PCR round.
The team’s principal physio Nitin Patel was deemed close contact with support staff and hence the onus of keeping the players fit came on the shoulders of Yogesh Parmar. When Parmar tested positive after arriving in Manchester when he has had close contact with all players, the gloves were off in the Indian camp and players refused to take the field.
 "Mayank Kumar")
