Pakistan arriving on Sunday for England cricket tour

London, June 26

Pakistan is arriving on Sunday without 10 coronavirus-infected players for a cricket tour of England that doesn’t have any scheduled games yet.

The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed the tour on Friday, saying only that the three Tests and three Twenty20s will be without spectators.

The tour was originally to begin on July 30, but the pandemic delayed all tours, and England’s three-Test series against the West Indies next month isn’t scheduled to end until July 28.

Pakistan’s itinerary “will be announced in due course,” the ECB said.

The 10 players and one staff member who tested positive for the virus this week are self-isolating in their homes in Pakistan, and will join the tour when they are cleared.

The rest of the Pakistan squad, which will undergo more tests before departing on Sunday, will upon arrival in England go into isolation for 14 days in Worcester before transferring to Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground on July 13.

The Pakistan Cricket Board expressed concern on Friday over the positive results from 10 of the 29 cricketers chosen for the tour. The only good news was that none have showed symptoms, and all have time to recover.

The board met via video conference and approved a 2020-21 budget of 7.76 billion rupees (around $46 million), including for the Pakistan Super League, its premier T20 tournament.

The PCB had to suspend the PSL in March but hopes to stage the playoffs this year. Peshawar was added as a fifth venue for the 2021 tournament starting in February. AP