Matter of embarrassment for Pakistan: Aamer Sohail defends Mohammad Hafeez in row over multiple Covid-19 tests
Former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail has come out in Mohammad Hafeez’s defense, saying that the matter of testing players was badly handled by PCB.
The situation with Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez continues to remain puzzling. Hafeez, who was tested positive in a coronavirus test conducted by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday, did a personal test on Wednesday which revealed he was negative for the virus. Now, reportedly, in another round of test conducted by PCB, Hafeez was found positive again. At the same time, Hafeez’s troubles are compounded by the fact that PCB the is not pleased with him for taking a private test in the first place.
In a recent interaction on Youtube channel Cricket Baaz, PCB CEO Wasim Khan said that Hafeez’s decision to take a private test without consulting the board has caused a problem. But former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail has come out in Hafeez’s defense, saying that the matter of testing players was badly handled by the board.
“The whole Mohammad Hafeez COVID-19 test fiasco has been a matter of embarrassment for Pakistan and I fail to understand how this matter was handled so badly by the PCB,” Sohail wrote in his blog for PakPassion.net.
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“Firstly 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.
“Without jumping the gun, they should have done scrutiny of those results and if needed got them redone to confirm before going public with them.
“And to expect 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,” the 53-year old added.
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Pakistan is arriving on Sunday without 10 coronavirus-infected players for a cricket tour of England that doesn’t have any scheduled games yet. The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed the tour on Friday, saying only that the three tests and three Twenty20s will be without spectators.
(With AP inputs)
