Pakistan cricket team arrives in England, to be quarantined for next 14 days
The Pakistan cricket team left for their tour of England on Sunday morning. Even before they left for England, the Pakistan team had been hit with a few of their players testing positive for Coronavirus.
20 players and 11 support personnel of the Pakistan men’s senior team on Sunday departed for Manchester. A chartered plane arranged by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) took the team to Manchester today in the morning. The entire Pakistan squad will now be quarantined for the next 14 days. The team will be now put in a designated hotel, this phase will start at Blackfinch New Road, Worcester.
The remaining members will be allowed to join their teammates later through commercial flights after they have recovered from the virus.
Once the quarantine period is over, the team will be again tested and will be allowed to begin training post that to face England. Both England and Pakistan are slated to play three Tests and three T20Is in a bio-secure bubble and the dates for the tour will be announced in due course.
On Twitter, Babar Azam, the skipper of Pakistan’s white-ball team said:
“On our way to another historic Pakistan tour to England. Its always great to play in England and I look forward to getting on this journey with our talented bunch of players. Fans, as always we would be in need of your prayers, love, and unconditional support. #PAKvENG #RiseAndRise.”
The PCB had initially planned to send a squad of 29 players to England, but ten players tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week. On Saturday, Wasim Khan, the PCB chief executive, announced that six of those ten players returned negative results when they were tested for the second time. So, as a result, 20 players and 11 members of the support staff will be traveling to England first. The rest of the players will join the squad later after returning two negative tests.
