England v India fifth Test called off after Covid case – as it happened

The Old Trafford Test was cancelled shortly before 9am due to concerns among the Indian players about the Covid cases in their camp

Mike Atherton is talking on Sky Sports News. He’s pointing out that the elephant in the room here is the IPL, which is due to resume on Sunday week – only four days after what should have been the last day of this Test. And he reckons that decision of Chris Broad’s that I mentioned just now will be subject to a lot of negotiation. He’s not in any doubt about which way that negotiation will go. “I don’t think forfeiture will be the end result, for sure.”

And we still don’t know the final score in the series. It’s either 2-2, if this is a forfeit by India as the ECB originally said, or 2-1, if it’s “match abandoned”, as the ECB implied by withdrawing the word “forfeit” almost as soon as they’d uttered it. The latest suggestion is that that decision goes to the ICC match referee – Chris Broad, father of Stuart.

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