Shoaib Akhtar feels Mohammad Hafeez should have confronted PCB privately about COVID-19 test results

Retired Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar feels that Mohammad Hafeez should have confronted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) about his COVID-19 test results instead of posting it on social media.

The veteran allrounder had got himself privately tested after the PCB-conducted test ha found him COVID positive. The result of the second test had come back negative.

Shoaib Akhtar also believes that the PCB has mismanaged the pandemic and should have tested all the players from the beginning itself instead of testing players at random.

“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 said.

Shoaib Akhtar also spoke about the rising COVID-19 positive cases in the Pakistan team as well as in the nation itself and pointed out the worst-hit areas in Pakistan during the same interview. He slammed the PCB for not managing the crisis properly within the national cricketing squad.

"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.

The PCB had lashed out at Hafeez for breaching testing protocols. Hafeez justified his actions by stating that he was just trying to get a second opinion, the results of which he posted on Twitter.

After Tested positive COVID-19 acc to PCB testing Report yesterday,as 2nd opinion & for satisfaction I personally went to Test it again along with my family and here I along with my all family members are reported Negetive Alham du Lillah. May Allah keep us all safe 🤲🏼 pic.twitter.com/3WKOkXisdp
— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) June 24, 2020

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A total of ten Pakistan players initially tested positive for the deadly virus, which forced the PCB to announce a revised 20-man squad for the tour of England. However, six out of those ten players have tested negative in the second round of testing conducted by the PCB and are expected to join the rest of the squad in England later, if their reports come out negative in the immediate next test to be conducted by the PCB in the coming week.

The team that has flown to England will be quarantined in Worcester for 14 days and will train there as well, before shifting their base to Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground on July 13th.

They will play three Tests and three T20Is against the Three Lions, the schedule of which is expected to be finalized in the coming days.