Babar Azam urges ICC to revise COVID-19 policy

LAHORE: Pakistan cricket team skipper Babar Azam Thursday urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to revise its COVID-19 policy as the situation is “back to normal” across the world.

Talking to Geo News, Babar Azams said that the cricketers, especially bowlers had to face the challenging situation amid the coronavirus pandemic. The virus situation has significantly improved across the globe, he said and underscored the need for revising the COVID-19 policy by the ICC.

“I am happy that things are returning to normal. We had been facing several challenges due to COVID-19,” said the skipper. 

"We should analyze how did the players spend time during the pandemic and we should now plan for the time ahead."

Every country was facing a different challenge and they had introduced different policies to cope with the pandemic and the cricketers had to follow the SOPs, he added.

The skipper said they spent 14 days in quarantine in New Zealand, while West Indies introduced a 7-day obligatory quarantine and England enforced a 5-day isolation period.

He hailed the players for giving their 100% amid the tough situation.

Bowlers were the most affected players during the pandemic, he said, adding that they need to apply saliva on the ball to shine or swing it but they were barred from doing this as part of the precautionary measures against the virus.

He said the ICC’s governing body should look into the matter as the things are returning to normal and the virus cases have dropped significantly in the world.