BCCI president Sourav Ganguly: We want the series to be completed

India players celebrate the wicket of England’s Jonny Bairstow on Day Five of the fourth Test at The Oval earlier this month. India won the Test by 157 runs. Pic/Getty Images

The proposed "standalone" Test between India and England should be treated as the series-deciding fifth match that was cancelled last week owing to a COVID-19 outbreak in the Indian camp, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said on Monday and ruled out the possibility of it being treated as a one-off game.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has written to the ICC seeking a Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) verdict on the fate of the cancelled match that was to be played at Old Trafford, Manchester. The ICC is yet to comment on the matter.

"We want the series to be completed as this will be our first series win [in England] since 2007," Ganguly said. "The BCCI maintains that Test cricket is the ultimate format and we won't compromise it for anything," he made it clear.

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‘Ready to play extra games'

Asked if the BCCI has offered to play two extra T20Is when the team tours in July next year for a white-ball series in lieu of the Test, Ganguly said: "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." If the ICC deems that the match was abandoned due to COVID-19, then India will officially win the series 2-1 as such a cancellation is considered an "acceptable non-compliance" under the World Test Championship rules.

The fifth Test was called off last week after the visiting players refused to step on to the field following positive COVID-19 cases among its support staff, including head coach Ravi Shastri.

Sourav Ganguly. Pic/Suresh Karkera

A forfeiture will allow the ECB to get insurance reimbursement of 40 million pounds that, it claims, would help offset its losses because of the cancellation. Ganguly said that the BCCI is "disappointed" that the match was called off, but it could not have pushed the worried players beyond a point.

‘Extremely disappointed'

"We are extremely disappointed that this series had to be called off. The only reason is COVID-19 outbreak and players' safety. We could only push them to a point. "But the pandemic is so severe that one can only go that much distance," he explained.

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Asked if the option of fielding a fresh team by resting some of the senior players, who were not comfortable, was considered, Ganguly answered in the negative.

No options available

"No, that wasn't an option. If you see, Yogesh Parmar [the junior physio who tested positive just before the match] was a close contact of every player. So obviously that was a cause of worry.

"It was something nobody had any control on and they [the players] had families travelling with them," Ganguly said, justifying the anxiety in the camp.

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