Agencies
 
 
MUMBAI, March 25: This is the surest indication of cash-rich Indian cricket board moving away from the traditional form of the game - Test cricket. When England tours India later this year it will play just two Test matches and not three as planned earlier. In India-England cricket history this will be a first of sorts because it has been a traditional rivalry built over full series.

This sacrifice of a Test has happened because of BCCI's greed. The Board was planning to squeeze in seven ODIs and two Twenty20 games in the schedule but then the tour would have gone beyond Christmas. This goes against the 'basic agreement' that England and Wales Cricket Board has with its players.

"The tour would have finished on January 5, and the problem is we have an agreement with our players that we will only tour South Africa and Australia over Christmas," a top ECB official told TOI.

On their part, BCCI officials have blamed the ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in Pakistan in September, for cutting down on a Test. They claim that if there was no Champions Trophy, India-England would have played a full series.

So the series will now start with the seven ODIs and end with the two Test matches. The series will end on December 23, in time for the England team to be home for Christmas. The second and final Test will also be the Platinum Jubilee match between England and India. England will arrive in India when Australia is on tour, playing its third Test match (October-November).

This is not the first time that Test cricket has earned such a shabby treatment. In the past too a series against South Africa (1999-2000) was scaled down from three Tests to just two Tests and five ODIs.