Mohammad Hafeez escapes discplinary action after breaching PCB's testing protocols

Pakistan’s 20-member squad and 11 support staff personnel finally left for England on Sunday morning after interesting turn of events over the last few days. Mohammad Hafeez was at the centre of all the developments after he underwent COVID-19 tests on a personal capacity in a private lab in Lahore.

He took this step after being tested positive along with 10 other players in the first phase of testing organised by the PCB. Moreover, the second test results returned negative for the veteran cricketer and he took to Twitter to let everyone know of the same. This didn’t please the PCB at all with its CEO Wasim Khan also clearly expressing the board’s displeasure to Hafeez directly.

The matter also led to a huge embarrassment for the PCB as a lot of questions were raised over the testing kits used. There were reports earlier that the board will take a disciplinary action against Mohammad Hafeez for breaching the testing protocols. However, Cricket Pakistan has reported that the PCB has decided against it now as the experienced player is not centrally contracted.

Mohammad Hafeez and five other players tested negative

After the fiasco over the testing kits, all the 10 players who were tested positive underwent COVID-19 tests again. And six of them, including Mohammad Hafeez returned negative to everyone’s surprise. The other five players are – Wahab Riaz, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Hasnain.

However, they will have to undergo another test next week and if the results are negative for COVID-19 then the PCB will make arrangements for their travel to England. The rest of the four cricketers – Kashif Bhatti, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali and Imran Khan who were tested positive for the second time, have been advised strict quarantine and should be tested negative twice to have any chance to make it to the UK for the Test and T20I series.

Pakistan will play three Tests and as many T20Is in England, the schedule of which is expected to be finalised in the upcoming few days.