David Gower, former England captain has come up with a big claim that led to the cancellation of the fifth and final Test in Manchester. Gower in an interview with Cricket.com said that the captain of the Indian team sent letters to BCCI at midnight, a day before the Final Test. The 5th Test was called off due to the COVID outbreak in the Indian team which forced Virat Kohli and Co. to withdraw from the match. Gower said that he was very much aware of what was coming and demands a better explanation of the events.
“Wow! No one, least of all I, saw that coming. It leads us into unprecedented territories,” Gower told Cricket.com.
“I mean I know other matches have been abandoned… sometimes a few balls bowled and various other circumstances but to have the thing called off at the last moment – Virat Kohli sending letters to the BCCI at midnight, the day before – the whole sequence of events needs explaining a little bit better,” he added.
“The worrying thing for me is this: If the IPL was so very closely linked to this, then that to me is very disappointing because… I mean sounds old, crusty, but for all those people like me and dare I say, Virat… the last time he was in England, he made a big point about how important Test match cricket is to him,” Gower said.
Mean-while, Virat Kohli told the RCB website after arriving in Dubai: “Unfortunate how we ended up being here early but with Covid in place, things are very uncertain, so anything can happen at any time. Hopefully, we are able to maintain a good strong, secure environment here and have a quality IPL, and then onto the World Cup. So now, heading into the T20 phase, I think it is going to be an exciting phase and a very important one for us at RCB and for the Indian team at the World Cup as well.”
