SO, THAT’S it then. Goodbye to the heatwave, the summer and to the England vs India Test series.
 
Fears of a Covid outbreak among Indian players and staff ahead of the looming multimillion-pound Indian Premier League (IPL) in Dubai proved too much to allow the series to continue, forcing the late cancellation of the fifth Test at Old Trafford — to the frustration of so many.
 
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) were always concerned about this particular Test match with the lucrative £400 million IPL starting this month, while the India players must be at the end of their tether. If you’ve been going from bubble to bubble, quarantine to quarantine, it must surely take its toll.
 
India will have been in a bubble for a year and are then heading to an even tighter bubble in Dubai. The fear of having to quarantine in self-isolation — and the possibility of returning a positive PCR test – must be as wearisome as it is concerning. Players are tired.
 
If your physio tests positive — as was the case with India — the all-too real fear must be that you as a player could be next. Certainly, if you’ve been in contact with him, even when massaging weary limbs after four hard Tests.

The uncertainty must be draining. Look no further than Ben Stokes attempting to protect his mental health, after being in a bubble took such a heavy toll.
 
Even if you test negative today as an India player, the nature of Covid’s incubation period means you could test positive tomorrow. That means you’d have to spend 10 further days in England in quarantine.

With the IPL starting four days after the India players are due to land in Dubai, what happens to that tournament if you inadvertently bring coronavirus into such a bio-secure environment?  
 
And it’s not just India who have suffered with Covid, only this week Pakistan left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz tested positive and has been quarantined as per protocols ahead of their hosting New Zealand in a series of ODIs and T20s with the first match scheduled for next week.
 
The fifth Test’s cancellation also surely adds further doubt to the viability of the Ashes Tour later this year. Firstly because it proves Covid can still enter the bubble system. And that’s without factoring in the psychological demands of staying in a bubble for so long. Again, look no further than England’s talisman Stokes. But then, as in everything in sport, money talks.
 
So, no wonder there was no appetite to play at Old Trafford from the India squad, nor their administrators, with Virat Kohli’s team showing an extreme reluctance to play, even if the ECB wanted the games to go ahead for financial reasons.
 
Confusion over ill-fated and unauthorised trips to book signings that prompted Covid zero, as some have dubbed it (allegedly), not to mention cynicism over cricketing politics, geo-politics and Machiavellian administrative boards notwithstanding, sympathy must go to the players and long-suffering fans of Test cricket.
 
Amid all the rumours and recriminations about who was to blame for the initial Covid case and what actually happens to the result of the series at the time of writing, the fact is cricket lovers have been denied what should have been an enthralling finale to a wonderful series.
 
As soon as I heard the news about the cancellation on Thursday morning, I called my best mate, who was on a train heading to Manchester for the Test. In that gallows humour that Test cricket fans know all too well, I joked to him that I’d made a wise choice not going to Old Trafford despite attending at least a day at the previous four Tests.
 
While he was understandably gutted, not least because — like so many — he’d had tickets for the first two days play, as well as hotels booked and travel forked out for, with doughty spirit he said he’d treat it like a “rain day” and get on the beers.
 
As for the lack of cricket itself, having been to Trent Bridge, Lord’s, Headingley and The Oval to take in some enthralling action during the England vs India series that will long live with me, I feel slightly cheated at the cancellation of the fifth Test.
 
Because this series has been superb. Test cricket really does allow for intense ebbs and flows while building context, establishing narratives and subplots, as well as testing temperament and talent as well as technique.
 
It was an honour to be at a rainy Trent Bridge to catch Jimmy Anderson’s incredible short spell before the heavens opened in which he took two wickets in two balls including Kohli for a golden duck. Likewise to be at hallowed Lord’s to witness the greatest English bowler of all time take 5-65 and make the honours board once again.
 
While being in NW8 for the final day was painful as an England fan, to see India turn the match and the series on its head with a tremendous rearguard fightback was mesmerising.

Two days for me at Headingley was gripping for the way India fought back after their unexpected first-day collapse, while the Oval saw Jasprit Bumrah’s match-winning spell of 6-3-2-6.
 
Despite their batters, apart from Kohli, not being in the class of previous great top orders I have seen in the flesh over the years — including Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Virendar Sewag to name but a few — this India side as a collective have proved to be world class.
 
India have been magnificent in winning, first in Australia, then in England (match referee’s decision permitting) on quick and bouncy wickets and then fast seaming pitches with a Duke’s ball, certainly after being bowled out for just 36 at Adelaide last December in their first Test match of that sequence down under.
 
So, never mind Covid and politics, congratulations to this great India Test cricket team, especially their fast bowlers who seriously have boosted their ability to win away from home. It’s just a shame about the fifth Test.