Published 19:53 IST, June 27th 2020
Mohammad Hafeez tests COVID negative, to undergo third round of testing next week: PCB
PCB has confirmed that veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez been tested negative and will be undergoing a third round of testing next week
Pakistan's seniormost player Mohammad Hafeez has reportedly been tested negative for COVID-19. This has been confirmed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). However, Pak's national cricket board has revealed that the former captain along with five of his team-mates will be undergoing another test and if the result is negative, then they all will be sent to England on a chartered plane.
As per reports, the six players including Hafeez who have tested negative will undergo a third round of testing next week and on returning negative, PCB will make arrangements for their departure for England series. Pakistan will be visiting England for a three-match Test series that will be followed by a three-match One Day International series from July 30 to September 2, 2020. However, it is the veteran all-rounder's fitness that has really put them in a spot of bother.
It had so happened that the board had confirmed earlier this week about seven players being tested positive for COVID-19 which had also included Hafeez as well. However, after getting himself tested privately, the 38-year-old had taken to social media and confirmed that he has been tested negative. Nonetheless, the middle-order batsman was once again tested positive in another round of tests conducted by his national cricket board.
'Was handled so badly': Aamer Sohail
Sohail in his blog for PakPassion.net went on to reveal that the whole Mohammad Hafeez COVID-19 test fiasco has been a matter of embarrassment for Pakistan and he fails to understand how this matter was handled so badly by the PCB. He then mentioned that firstly the tests were done after the squad was announced and instead of doing all tests in one laboratory, players were sent to different facilities for tests resulting in conflicting reports.
The former Pakistani skipper then added that without jumping the gun, they (PCB) should have done scrutiny of those results and if needed got them redone to confirm before going public with them. Furthermore, the 1992 World Cup winner added that expecting Mohammad Hafeez to not go public with results of his COVID-19 test when PCB had announced that he had tested positive would be unrealistic as he is not bound by any code of conduct which would be the case if he was a centrally contracted player.
Updated 19:53 IST, June 27th 2020