ISLAMABAD: Bored during Pakistan’s coronavirus lockdown, Test opener Shan Masood put on his helmet, picked up his bat — and Zoom cricket was born.

Shan, 30, was video-chatting with team-mates when they grabbed their cricket gear and pretended to play a match.

“A couple of us guys were talking on Zoom and it was pretty late at night and somebody just picked up a ball,” said Shan. “He had a ball [in] his hand and eventually all of us got kitted up and we played... a made-up cricket match.

“So that was quite a funny moment where I kind of had my helmet on. Hasan Ali was seaming into the ball, Imam-ul-Haq was fielding, Wahab Riaz was the captain,” he added. “[We] just made it into a funny little incident.”

Cricket, like most other sport, is on hold during the pandemic, much to the frustration of players and fans.

Shan said Pakistan’s squad had been training at home — sometimes using staircases and armchairs as gym equipment — to prepare for cricket’s return.

“Everyone’s been training, everyone’s been being good, and also that we have to take into account that this is the month of Ramazan and it’s harder to train,” said Shan. “Hopefully that whenever this thing ends... all this hard work that we’re putting in right now, even with uncertainty around, it [will] be translated into cricketing performances.”

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020