Pakistan allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, who was tested positive yesterday (24 June), has now tested negative as he went for a personal test in wake of a second opinion. This now raises question marks over the testing carried out by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which saw as many as 10 players and one support staff member testing positive for COVID-19.
Hafeez took to twitter to announce his negative reports while also publishing it.
His tweet read: “After Tested positive COVID-19 acc to PCB testing Report yesterday,as 2nd opinion & for satisfaction I personally went to Test it again along with my family and here I along with my all family members are reported Negetive Alham du Lillah. May Allah keep us all safe.”
It remains to be seen if Hafeez will make the cut to board the flight. PCB has already made it clear that only players with negative test reports as on June 25 will travel to England to play the series. The England Cricket Board (ECB) has also issued a protocol of testing players upon arrival in Manchester, and the team will stay in quarantine and train in Derbyshire for the following two weeks.
The official schedule is yet to be released but the first Test of the three-match series is likely to be played in the first week of August. And the visitors will be tested as many as five times before the contest commences. However, with the latest developments and questions being raised over the testing kits, it remains to be seen if the PCB tests all the players again.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has doing all the necessary work ahead of their travel to England on 28th June for the series, a part of which included COVID-19 tests of all the Pakistan team members and the support staff. In an unfortunate turn of events, as many as 10 players and 1 member of the support staff have tested positive for Coronavirus as the latest tests revealed. However, PCB seem unperturbed and are adamant that the tour will go ahead as promised. The ones to have tested negative are slated to assemble in Lahore on Wednesday in a bio-secure environment before another phase of testing that begins on June 25.
All the players to have tested positive have been asked to self-isolate and follow a certain routine, and will be tested twice before the team head out for the UK. The 10 players who tested positive are – Fakhar Zaman, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali and Shadab Khan.
