PCB shut down office headquarters in Lahore after a COVID-19 case

Just a few days after the 2021 edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was postponed for an indefinite time in the wake of the increasing number of positive coronavirus cases among the staff and other players, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is forced to shut down their office headquarters in Lahore with immediate effect as a senior office-bearer has tested positive for Covid-19.

The cricket body isn’t in the mood to take any risk regarding the safety of the officials and other staff and thus has decided to adopt a safety-first approach by asking all its employees to work from home. While the board is yet to launch a contact tracing of the infected official, it is learned that the training camp set up at the high-performance center in Lahore for Pakistan and bench players has been suspended.

Though it is confirmed that the senior official has not contracted the virus due to PSL 2021 as he hadn’t paid a visit to Karachi, the concerned person had visited the high-performance center in Lahore. “The Lahore based players like Azhar Ali and Muhammad Abbas were all going home after the training but now the board has suspended the camp and will announce fresh dates with all players now to undergo fresh COVID tests as the board has also launched contact tracing of the official,” the PCB chairman, Ehsan Mani said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Ehsan Mani to hold a meeting with franchise owners

Further, Mani has also decided to set up an independent panel to probe what went wrong in the PSL bio-secure arrangements. PCB has been at receiving the end of major criticism from all over the cricket fraternity and the franchise owners for its decision of suspending the league.

The same has also raised several question marks over the arrangements made by the cricketing body for hosting the mega-tournament. The matter became serious after the head of the PCB’s medical and sports sciences department, Dr. Sohail Saleem submitted his resignation to the Chairman.

The future of the league and an update regarding the tension between PCB and the franchise owners can come soon as Ehsan Mani is due to hold a meeting with the six franchise owners on Monday.