Three members of Pakistan tour party to England test positive for Covid-19
Pakistan’s tour of England appears to be in the balance, with three of their players having tested positive for Covid-19 and a further batch of results set to be published in the next 24 hours.
A 28-man squad to cover three Tests in August and the Twenty20 series that follows is due to depart from Lahore on Sunday and all players and members of the support staff were tested regionally over the weekend.
The results from Rawalpindi, where five individuals were tested, came in early and showed Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan have the virus but are asymptomatic. Imad Wasim and Usman Shinwari were shown to be clear.
The trio have been told to self-isolate at home and could join the tour at a later date – they are considered more likely to be in the team’s whiteball plans – while Imad and Shinwari will travel to Lahore in advance of the squad’s final departure.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed these are the only batch of results currently known, with those from the players and coaches who used the testing centres in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar not due to be published until Tuesday. Haris Sohail and Mohammad Amir have declined to tour.
It leaves the England and Wales Cricket Board waiting on further positives results that could derail the tour, wipe out their second helping of men’s international cricket this summer and cost an estimated £80m in broadcast revenue.
In the build-up to the first Test series against West Indies, Phil Simmons, the tourists’ head coach, revealed he was subject to racist abuse while playing league cricket in the North East 30 years ago and said his players will show solidarity with Black Lives Matters during the upcoming series.
With the resumption of sport around the world there have been a number of gestures of support for the movement, with England and West
Indies discussing how best to denote their own at the first Test in Southampton on 8 July.
Simmons expects a plan to be agreed this week and when asked about encounters with racism in his own career – he won 169 international caps and enjoyed spells with Durham and Leicestershire – the former opener pointed to his time as a league player during the late 1980s and early 90s.
“I encountered quite a bit [of racism] up in the leagues. In county cricket I haven’t really encountered that much,” he said as his side prepared for