Month: July 2020

Fast bowler Mohammad Amir, along with a masseur named Mohammad Imran, have tested negative in their first round of Covid-19 tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Cricket Pakistan reported.

As per the board’s protocol, players and staff must return two negative tests in order to be eligible for travel.

With the first test conducted on Monday, the duo will be placed in a bio-secure environment in Lahore ahead of their second test, which will be held on Wednesday.

They are expected to travel to England over the weekend, if their second tests return negative results too.

Upon their arrival in England, reserve wicketkeeper-batsman Rohail Nazir will be released from his duties.

It is pertinent to mention that Amir had excused himself from the tour due to the birth of his daughter, however, team management was keen to have him on board for the tour.

The national team will kick off the three-match Test series in Manchester’s Old Trafford from August 5.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) Monday postponed the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The ICC, in a statement, said that at the meeting of the IBC Board, windows for the next three ICC men’s events were also agreed to bring clarity to the calendar to recover from the disruption caused by COVID-19.

The windows for the Men’s events are:

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 will be held October – November 2021 with the final on 14 November 2021

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 will be held October – November 2022 with the final on 13 November 2022

ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will be held in India October – November 2023 with the final on 26 November 2023

“The IBC Board agreed to continue to monitor the rapidly changing situation and assess all the information available in order to make a considered decision on future hosts to ensure the sport is able to stage safe and successful global events in 2021 and 2022,” the ICC said in a statement.

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: “We have undertaken a comprehensive and complex contingency planning exercise and through this process, our number one priority has been to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in the sport.

“The decision to postpone the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup was taken after careful consideration of all of the options available to us and gives us the best possible opportunity of delivering two safe and successful T20 World Cups for fans around the world.

Sawhney said the ICC’s members now have the clarity they need around event windows to enable them to reschedule lost bilateral and domestic cricket.

“Moving the Men’s Cricket World Cup to a later window is a critical element of this and gives us a better chance of maintaining the integrity of the qualification process,” he said.

This additional time will be used to reschedule games that might be lost because of the pandemic ensuring qualification can be decided on the field of play, he said.

Arshad Nadeem, a 23-year-old athlete, has made the nation proud after becoming the first Pakistani to directly qualify for Tokyo Olympics 2021.

The global sporting event, which was earlier scheduled to be held in July, has now been postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Nadeem, a javelin thrower, is a four-time national champion, and among many honours and platitudes, holds the distinction of being the sole representative from Pakistan at the World Athletics Championship at Doha, PTV Sports tweeted on Wednesday.