LAHORE: Dr Najeebullah Soomro has been appointed as chief medical officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in place of Dr Sohail Saleem who resigned in the backdrop of some Covid-19 cases that emerged during the Karachi leg of the Pakistan Super League-6 earlier this year.

Dr Sohail quit the post much before the report of the inquiry committee appointed by the PCB chairman given as he had understood he might be a scapegoat for the Covid-19 cases. Neither the PCB made the inquiry report nor it held anyone responsible for the PSL-6 Covid-19 cases.

According to a PCB press release issued on Tuesday, Dr Najeebullah has made a name in Australian sport with his research, practice and contribution.

He is an MBBS from Karachi’s Dow University of Health and Sciences and a Ph.D from Discipline of Exercise and Sports Science, The University of Sydney (Thesis: Cricket Injury Prevention). This was completed in collaboration with Cricket Australia in creating the world’s first Cricket Injury Prevention Programme (CIPP) and injury surveillance mobile app (TeamDoc) for community cricket.

Dr Najeebullah is also a dual trained injury epidemiologist & sports scientist, having completed master of public health from the University of Sydney, majoring in epidemiology and injury prevention.

Dr Najeebullah’s consultancy in sports science and medicine spans national and international organisations, such as Cricket Australia, Cricket New South Wales, Cricket Victoria, Pakistan Cricket Board, IronMan Western Australia, FIFA, Rugby League, Netball and Australian Football League.

Dr Najeebullah will relocate from Perth to assume his responsibilities at the National High Performance Centre in October.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021