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Mohammad Hafeez tests positive again for England tour

Written by Abhishek Patil

Veteran Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has been found positive for COVID-19 again after another test was carried out. The news came a few days after the player came out negative for the same in private test that he had conducted himself. Surprisingly, the negative result had come just a day after he was found positive in the test conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

PCB is planning to take disciplinary action against the player for breaking the protocols that were set by them to maintain the quarantine. But, on a bigger picture, this whole fiasco has put Pakistan’s tour to England under question.

In the first round of tests when all the 29 members of the squad were tested, Hafeez was found positive along with 9 other players of the squad which included the likes of Fakhar Zaman and Wahab Riaz. But the very next day, Hafeez posted a tweet where he came up with the reports that showed his test came out negative and hence staying quarantine wasn’t mandatory for him.

Sources suggest that Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, which carried out the tests of the players did a retest of the samples of the players where Mohammad Hafeez has ended up being positive, yet again.

“This is a very intriguing situation for the board. It will be interesting to see what is the result of the second test taken today of the 10 players, who tested positive in the first test earlier this week will come,” the source said.

Pakistan Cricket Board is very disappointed with the way Hafeez had responded by not following the protocols of quarantine that was set for the players who were tested positive. But, a ‘source’ close to Hafeez justified his action saying he carried out the second test because he was very concerned about his family.

“That is why he took a second test privately as a precautionary measure he had no intention to embarrass the authorities,” the source mentioned.

The PCB is supposed to come up with the second set of results on Saturday and whoever found positive after that could be replaced by the reserves for the tour of England.

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Abhishek Patil