PCB confident England tour on track despite more Covid-19 horror

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket chiefs insisted on Tuesday that this summer’s tour of England is “very much on track” even as seven more players from the 29-man touring party tested positive for Covid-19.

A day after three members of Pakistan’s squad – Shadab Khan, Haider Ali and Haris Rauf – tested positive for Covid-19, it was revealed on Tuesday that the list has now gone up to ten just days before the squad’s departure for England on Sunday.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed that Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hasnain, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz, and Imran Khan have also tested positive for Covid-19. Malang Ali (masseur), a member of the team’s support staff, in also on the list.

The results forced Wasim Khan, PCB’s CEO, to call a video conference on Tuesday in which he revealed that all ten players, who have tested positive, are asymptomatic.

He stressed that Pakistan’s plans to travel to Manchester from Lahore on a chartered flight remains unchanged even though only 19 of the 29 players selected for the tour are available at the moment.

Well-placed sources told ‘The News’ that before Wasim’s video conference, he contacted top England Cricket Board (ECB) officials and sought their support.

The ECB officials told Wasim that they were confident that the tour could go on despite the flurry of positive tests.

Pakistan have four reserve players — Bilal Asif, Imran Butt, Musa Khan and Mohammad Nawaz – for the tour. The quartet will now undergo testing.

In addition, Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s head coach and chief selector, will now pick more reserve players in order to bolster the squad in case some of the positive cases are unable to make it to England.

The newly-chosen back-up players will immediately undergo testing. In addition, PCB will ask the ten players, who have tested positive, to undergo retests with the hope that they might came out negative this time.

Meanwhile, Wasim Khan played down reports that the tour of England could be in jeopardy.

“The tour to England is very much on track and the side will depart as per schedule on 28 June,” he said. “Fortunately, all the first-choice red-ball squad, barring Mohammad Rizwan, are negative, which means they can start training and practicing immediately after they have been tested and given the all clear when they arrive in England. As regards the players, who have tested positive, we will continue to monitor and support them, including conducting antibody tests, and as soon as they test negative, they will be flown to join the squad in England. At the moment, they have been advised to go into self-isolation so that they not only recover quickly but also prevent their other family members from being infected.”

In recent days, there had been reports that some of Pakistan’s players weren’t following SOPs regarding social distancing. Wasim agreed that the players, who are Covid positive might have shown complacency.

“They haven’t played cricket for four months; they are young cricketers and are sometimes a little too enthusiastic. You look around society, and there has been no social distancing that’s been adhered to. We can only give them guidelines. Now is not the time to come down on them.

“Covid-19 and cricket will have to coexist for at least the next 12 to 18 months. It’s not going to disappear. It’s here to stay. So at the moment, all we can do is to keep on guiding them and making sure they are strictly sticking to what they are given as policy. If we find out that these players are not adhering and again test positive, then they are not going to go to England,” he said.

“The recent positive tests of some of the fittest athletes, who had not shown any symptoms, clearly reflect the danger this virus possesses,” Wasim said. “As such, and on behalf of the PCB, I once again request the public to strictly adhere to all safety precautions as advised and recommended by the federal and provincial governments to ensure their health and safety as well as of their dear and near ones.”

Meanwhile, a top ECB official said that he is “concerned” by the news of Pakistan players testing positive for Covid-19 but insists that at this stage he does not think the series against England is in doubt.

“It is a concern,” Ashley Giles, ECB’s managing director, said. “Obviously I’m most concerned about those players who tested positive and their welfare.

“At the moment, I don’t think the series is in doubt. We are far enough away from the start of the Test series to not worry about that too much at the moment. There are some more test results coming out later from the rest of the group so we will see what those say, but we are still hopefully that the Pakistan team will be arriving in the country fairly soon.

“The situation in Pakistan is not great at the moment and our thoughts go out to the whole country,” Giles continued. “But clearly it is important we get that team and those guys in our country and we can get on with that series. We need to get our opposition in country. Anything that puts that at risk is clearly a problem.

“There are a number of hurdles to cross. That’s why we are trying to create environments that mitigate as much risk as we possibly can. All of this carries uncertainty, even to a degree the West Indies series, because we know how fast-moving this situation has been around the world. We have been very careful at every step, but do we really know what’s round the corner? No.

“It’s such a far-reaching issue, global issue that is affecting everyone. It’s far more important than sport. But we are hopeful that if we can get international sport on, it will be a real fillip for many people around the world.” —with inputs from agencies