India
skipper Virat Kohli sent letters to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
the night before the fifth and final Test at Manchester, former England captain
David Gower has claimed. In an interview with cricket.com, Gower said the
events that led up to the cancellation of the series finale, following an
outbreak of COVID-19 in the Indian camp, need better explanation.  

“Wow! No
one, least of all I, saw that coming. It leads us into unprecedented
territories,” he told the portal. “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.”

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It was
speculated after the cancellation of the Test match, which has reportedly led
to substantial monetary losses for the ECB and left a bad taste among many Englishmen
and other fans, that the imminent resumption of the Indian Premier League (IPL)
was behind the abrupt decision.

“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 sound 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, who played 117 Test matches and 114 ODIs for England from 1978 to 1992,
said.

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Meanwhile, BCCI
chief Sourav Ganguly has dismissed rumors that the IPL was behind the
cancellation of the fifth Test. “The BCCI will never be an irresponsible board,”
he said recently.

The former
Indian captain said that the visiting players were afraid of contracting COVID
after physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive, something he said that left them “devastated”.