PSL game postponed after Ahmed tests positive for COVID-19

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistan Super League game was postponed Monday after Australian legspinner Fawad Ahmed tested positive for COVID-19 and was put in isolation.

Islamabad United was to meet Quetta Gladiators but the Pakistan Cricket Board rescheduled the game for Tuesday after first postponing it by two hours.

“One of our players, Fawad Ahmed tested positive ... and was immediately put in isolation two days ago,” Islamabad United said in a statement.

The PCB said all remaining members of Islamabad United and the entire Quetta Gladiators squad tested negative.

The cricket board also said that the decision to reschedule Monday’s game was made with an aim to allow players "sufficient time to relax, refocus and regroup following the testing and in the best interest of the competition.”

In his only appearance in the PSL this year, Ahmed took 1-40 against Peshawar Zalmi on Saturday. Islamabad lost by six wickets.

It’s the first COVID-19 positive test in Pakistan’s premier Twenty20 league, which began on Feb. 20.

Players and player support personnel of the four remaining teams — Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Peshawar Zalmi and Multan Sultans — along with match officials will also undergo rapid COVID-19 tests on Monday evening.

On Feb. 21, Peshawar captain Wahab Riaz and head coach Daren Sammy were allowed to rejoin their squad after their appeal against a quarantine for breaching COVID-19 protocols was accepted by the PCB.

Riaz and Sammy breached the team’s bio-secure bubble on Feb. 19 when they met with their team owner, who was not part of the bubble. But they rejoined the team following two negative COVID-19 tests after they were spared the three-day quarantine when their appeal was accepted by the PSL committee.

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