After HBL PSL6 bubble burst, will England tour Pakistan?

England’s tour of Pakistan is still far away, which gives the PCB time to make necessary amends after HBL PSL6 fiasco

KARACHI:

The Habib Bank Limited Pakistan Super League sixth edition had to climax in the middle due to seven players testing positive for coronavirus, even after being inside the bio-secure bubble, and everyone related to the league is upset because of it.

Foreign players are tweeting about how good their cut-short experience was with the HBL PSL and how they enjoyed playing cricket in Pakistan, specifically Karachi.

Meanwhile, local players were seen shocked, some were tweeting prayers while others, mostly former cricketers, were seen bashing the Pakistan Cricket Board and everyone else involved with managing the bio-secure bubble of the HBL PSL6 for their criminal negligence.

In all this noise, former captain and former chief selector Inzamamul Haq raised a very important point for the PCB to ponder over in the upcoming days, apart from investigating the whole HBL PSL fiasco.

Inzamam argued that earlier foreign players hid behind the notion of safety and security before saying no to the tour of Pakistan. However, with England next to visit Pakistan for T20Is in October, just before this year’s World T20, the players will now have a different objection.

With the leak in the bio-secure bubble causing indefinite postponement of the HBL PSL, the foreign players can now back out of touring Pakistan by calling out the PCB for their ineffective management of the bubble.

While others were merely stating the obvious, Inzi’s observation hit bulls eye as English players are already pulling out of tours and matches stating mental fatigue as the reason. With a long and hectic World T20 next, English players would be looking to take some necessary time out of the bubble and would want to spend some time with their families by avoiding the short tour of Pakistan.

If the HBL PSL6 would have gone smoothly, without any hiccups, especially with regards to the bio-secure bubble, then many English stars would have come to Pakistan to further consolidate their positions in the World T20 squad. But now all of them have a reason to pull out, and the HBL PSL6 bio-secure bubble burst will give their excuses clear validity.

The news of the HBL PSL6 being postponed due to positive coronavirus cases came as a shock for the Pakistani cricket fraternity and all the country’s fans, who were thronging the stadiums to see cricket stars in action. Everyone is demanding answers from the people at the helm of organising the HBL PSL6 and their queries are legit.

Pakistan came a long way to prove that they have the right security in place to organise a cricketing tournament inside the country, with foreign players featuring, but now questions are being raised over PCB’s professionalism.

While the world is still fighting the effects of pandemic, playing cricket in such times should have been considered a privilege by all cricketers and organisers involved. But their casual attitude towards the virus and the PCB’s inefficient policing of the bubble has done more damage to Pakistan cricket than the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus.

There’s only one way for the PCB to win the confidence of the visiting teams in regards to the board’s efficiency of perfectly managing a bio-secure bubble. They have to find the culprits responsible and fire them at the earliest.

Reports are that the PCB has moved to hire overseas consultants to create and maintain a bio-secure bubble for the upcoming tours, but the board needs to realise that whatever happened was because of their own negligence rather than the absence of expertise on the said matter.

England’s short tour of Pakistan in October is still far away, which gives the PCB time to make necessary amends and strengthen the professionalism within their ranks so the next time someone visits, they are not afraid of contracting the virus, even after being in a bio-secure bubble.