At the very least, the decision should have been made many hours before keys entered ignition.

Complicated business. But surely an inevitable consequence of playing All Of The Cricket, All Of The Time.

Agnew’s interview with Tom Harrison on TMS was ludicrous. 15 minutes of gentle half-volleys, obligingly patted back down the pitch.

Finally got an answer to this as well.

https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/will-england-and-india-bin-the-old-trafford-test/2021/05/21/

Oooft. I was pretty much ready to turn the key in the ignition and drive on down to the north when I heard the news. Pretty pissed off to be honest. We’re only slightly out of pocket but it’s something we’d been looking forward to for ages. Cannot help but think it’s mainly greed-driven to protect the more lucrative IPL and if that’s the case the BCCI can, quite frankly, go fuck themselves. A bad day for test cricket.

I jinxed it, didn’t I?

Cricinfo “breaking news” in the last few minutes (c8:45 BST) suggests a postponement or worse, while the BBC has not updated its headline that the game is to go ahead as scheduled.

Meanwhile the KC headline to this piece seems strangely prescient regardless of whether the match goes ahead as planned, has a delayed start or is cancelled.

Test cricket fans being the way they are, you imagine pretty much all the surviving ticket holders would probably still turn up.