Former speedster Shoaib Akhtar has said that instead of making his second COVID-19 test result public via Twitter, all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez should have spoken with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
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Hafeez was among the 10 Pakistani players who tested positive for the novel Coronavirus when the PCB conducted the first round of tests earlier this week.
However, he posted a tweet the very next day with a report from a private medical facility where the result came out negative.
The turn of events left the PCB disappointed and the organisation accused the senior cricketer of violating protocols ahead of the team's highly-anticipated tour of England.
"PCB showed a bit of mismanagement, we just started doing random testing of players, now players have tested positive for coronavirus, the worst-hit area due to coronavirus is maybe Lahore, then it is Karachi. I am sure that if you keep on testing, you will get more and more positive results," Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.
"Now, the tests are done, my advice to Hafeez was to go for the retest, but he should not have posted the result of his second Test on Twitter, he should have confronted the PCB, you should not get on bad terms with the board. The tour of England is important for Pakistan, we need to send our solid team there if we want to win the Test series," he added.
According to PCB’s Saturday (June 27) media release, Hafeez’s COVID-19 result came out negative in the board’s retesting process. Apart from Hafeez, five other players, who were tested positive in the first round, returned negative in the retests.
However, Hafeez and the five players namely Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Wahab Riaz were not considered in the first group of travellers for England tour, where Pakistan will play three Tests and equal number of T20Is in August and September.
“The six players who have now tested negative will undergo third round of testing at some stage next week and if their tests remain negative, then the PCB will make arrangements to send them to England,” PCB had stated in the press release.
