Indian board seek Test delay to avoid Twenty20 final clash
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White House Correspondent
Test cricket received another slap in the face yesterday when the Indian game's governing body asked its English counterpart whether it would be prepared to delay next month's first Test between the sides for a day. The request has been made so that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, can play in the final of the Twenty20 Champions League should his side, the Chennai Super Kings, reach it.
The final of the Champions League – Middlesex are England's representatives – is due to take place in Chennai on 10 December, the day before the first Test in Ahmedabad is scheduled to start. England's players will not want the second Test pushed back a day because of their desire to be home for Christmas – they arrive in the UK on 24 December – and if the England and Wales Cricket Board agree to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's request its players, assuming the match goes five days, will have only two days rest between the first and second Test. One of those days will be spent travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
The situation is the latest example of Test cricket becoming marginalised by the Twenty20 revolution.
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