LAHORE: After the setback of three Pakistan players testing positive for Covid-19 on Monday evening, seven more players and one official from the England-bound squad tested positive on Tuesday, raising the total tally to eleven.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive Wasim Khan officially announced the development on a video conference held on Tuesday, soon after the tests of 41 members of the touring party were completed.

Two officials - bowling coach Waqar Younis and physio Cliffe Deacon - and cricketer Shoaib Malik are not available for tests due to different reasons.

Those who tested positive on Tuesday include opener Fakhar Zaman, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan and Wahab Riaz. On Monday, among the five cricketers tested at Rawalpindi, three came positive, they were Shadab Khan, Haider Ali and Haris Rauf, while Imad Wasim and Usman Shinwari were cleared. The only official, out of total 14, who tested positive is Malang Ali, the masseur.

Total number of affectees in England-bound squad is 11

Those players whose tests were negative are Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.

The cleared support staff includes Mansoor Rana (manager), Misbah-ul-Haq (head coach), Shahid Aslam (assistant to head coach), Younis Khan (batting coach), Mushtaq Ahmed (spin bowling coach), Abdul Majeed (fielding coach), Talha Butt (team analyst), Yasir Malik (strength and conditioning coach), Dr Sohail Saleem (team doctor), retired Lt Col Usman Riffat (security manager) and Raza Kitchlew (media and digital content manager).

“Yesterday we announced that five cricketers tested in Rawalpindi but three came positive and on Monday we tested 35 cricketers and officials in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar, and among them seven more cricketers and one official tested positive, making the total number as 11,” Wasim told media.

Though the PCB will be in a position to announce the final touring party by June 27, just one day before its departure to England, it does not want to accept this as a panic situation.

“As we have to play the three-Test series first there’s no reason to panic since among the players testing positive, only three are required to play in the five-day format of cricket including Mohammad Rizwan, Imran Khan and Kashif Bhatti while the other seven are the players for limited-over games [T20] which are scheduled for the latter part of August,” Wasim said.

“We have 19 cricketers who have cleared the tests and in the remaining days we will be testing more cricketers including four reserves players and by June 27, we will be in a position to announce the final team for the tour,” he said.

“Chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq is in contact with PCB doctor Sohail Salim in order to get the tests done for more cricketers,” he said.

To a question whether it would have been better to conduct covid-19 tests of the players on a weekly basis after the PCB had announced the squad on June 12, Wasim said due to the change in departure time of the team, the PCB could not do that.

“First we were to travel on July 5 but as we could not hold the training camp in Lahore [from June 10] as the cases were increasing day by day, we decided to hold the camp in England,” he said.

He said the ECB was very kind and cooperative with the PCB as it had made necessary arrangements for early departure of the Pakistan squad, which is set for June 28. He said as all the positive tested players had no symptoms, so, after passing a quarantine period of two weeks, hopefully, they would be available for the tour by July 15.

He, however, warned that all positive tested players would be monitored very strictly and if they would be found violating the self-isolation policy, they would not be part of the tour.

He said all the players would pass the quarantine period at home as it was not possible to arrange for their stay at the NCA as several staff members worked there and could be at risk.

When asked the media had been reporting that many cricketers were violating the SOPs by playing cricket or doing net practice in Lahore and Peshawar, Wasim said as the cricketers were young athletes and keeping fit, they believed they could not be affected by the virus, but after 10 cricketers have tested positive, they will hopefully now seriously observe the SOPs.

He expressed full confidence over the arrangements the ECB had made for the touring teams, including the West Indies, and added as the Covid-19 was on its decline in UK so the country was safe for cricket.

He said the PCB was touring England as a challenge, aiming to get cricket resumed at the international level.

It may be mentioned that the two cricket boards are yet to announce the final itinerary of the tour. It is expected that the ECB will announce it in next couple of days as it is busy in getting clearance of the venues from different government’s departments.

Tentatively, the first Test will be held on Aug 5 and the last of three T20I on Sept 1.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2020

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