‘Unacceptable’: Players warned

Members of the Pakistan cricket team have ‘‘significantly improved’’ their compliance with New Zealand’s managed isolation rules after a ‘‘final warning’’.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told Radio NZ’s Morning Report that several players were caught ‘‘mingling’’ in hallways while in managed isolation at Christchurch’s Chateau on the Park hotel. Their behaviour was unacceptable, he said.

The Ministry of Health confirmed six of the 53-member squad tested positive for Covid-19 following routine day one testing.

Yesterday, the ministry said the team’s compliance with managed isolation rules had ‘‘significantly improved’’.

‘‘We thank members of the team for their co-operation with the case investigations following the announcement of positive cases within the team.

‘‘Co-operation and compliance are critical in ensuring New Zealand is kept safe from Covid-19,’’ the ministry said.

Bloomfield said four of the positive results were new infections and two were possibly historical infections.

All members of the team also returned negative tests before flying to New Zealand. Day three testing was to be carried out yesterday.

Pakistan cricket fans and journalists identified the affected players on social media yesterday. They include former captain Sarfraz Ahmed, Abid Ali, Mohammad Abbas, bowler Naseem Shah, Rohail Nazir and Danish Aziz.

Pakistani sports journalist Shoaib Jatt posted criticism of New Zealand’s attitude towards the Pakistani players on Twitter, saying it was ‘‘degrading’’.

‘‘We are going there and playing in difficult situations. Instead of being kind, they are threatening us,’’ he wrote.

He also claimed one of the violations happened in the lobby when a mask went under a player’s nose. Another breach happened when a player picked up food left by a waiter when he was not wearing a mask. Pakistan cricket legend Shoaib Akhtar launched a scathing attack on NZ Cricket for threatening to cancel his former team’s tour of the country.

On his YouTube channel, Akhtar warned NZ Cricket to ‘‘behave yourself’’ for threatening to cancel the tour and accused NZ Cricket of treating the Pakistan national team like a club team.

He added that New Zealand should feel indebted to Pakistan for agreeing to come when they were not getting any money for the tour. He suggested the Pakistan Cricket Board consider boycotting New Zealand for five years.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the breaches were within the Chateau MIQ facility and posed no threat to public safety. He believed New Zealand’s border measures were still ‘‘working’’.

‘‘They are on their final warning ... and I think that is a very clear message that they cannot breach [the rules again].’’

Bloomfield told Radio NZ that surveillance cameras showed the players had not been abiding by the arrangements clearly set out for them. ‘‘Rather than being in their own rooms which is a requirement for that first three days, until that first test comes back, there was some mingling in the hallways, chatting, sharing food and not wearing masks.’’

The mingling happened ‘‘at least once’’ but it only had to happen once for authorities to take ‘‘a dim view of that’’, he said. The positive cases had been moved to separate quarantine rooms in the hotel and all players would be tested at least four times before leaving the facility.

The team had been ordered to stay in their rooms and had been stripped of training privileges. It was not clear yet whether any of the six people who tested positive mingled in the hallway.

The next steps involved the ministry looking at the day three test results, being taken yesterday and reviewing surveillance footage. No decision had been made yet regarding an exemption to allow the players to train. Bloomfield said he had the power to withdraw the exemption.

Pakistan’s first match against the Black Caps is a T20 at Auckland’s Eden Park on December 18.

‘‘[The Pakistan cricketers] are on their final warning.’’ Grant Robertson Deputy prime minister