The experts on the treatment of biosecurity treatments in the delayed Premier League of Pakistan will be led by infectious disease experts Dr Syed Faisal Mahmood and Dr Salma Mohammad Abbas. The two-person fact-finding committee will investigate the protocols in place for the alliance, look into what went wrong and present their findings to UWB chairman Ehsan Mani this month.
The day that PCB CEO Wasim Khan announced that the alliance had been suspended indefinitely, he promised an independent investigation into what went wrong when a bubble case began to spread, with more cases occurring turn up with each round of tests. There were well-documented examples of non-adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and experts are expected to assess whether those SOPs were fit for purpose in the first place.
Dr Syed Faisal Mahmood is Asso-ciate Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases, at Aga Khan University, while Dr Salma Muhammad Abbas is an infectious disease consultant with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Lahore.
“The PCB takes the health and safety of its players, player support personnel and games officials very seriously,” said Mani. “We have shown our duty of care in the international series against Zimbabwe and South Africa, as well as during the nine domestic events where we successfully staged 220 games. This included a 34-game National T20 Cup in Multan and Rawalpindi as well as the first and second eleventh Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and the Pakistan Cup in Karachi. “
The PCB has been keen to point out that, in the wake of the PSL suspension fiasco, the home season had been held, up to that point, with relatively few events. Towards the end of last year, the board highlighted that it had conducted nearly 3000 tests during the domestic season. But the fragility of the measures alongside it – such as bubbles and biosafety protocols – was evident in, for example, the number of players turning up with Covid-19 positive tests in New Zealand; more pertinently, it was evident in the number of cases that emerged from the PSL’s fifth season playoff games, played last November.
Either way, what has happened over the past week at the PSL has undone any progress Pakistan has made in this regard, and Mani said he wants the experts to provide “ honest, constructive and objective review. The independent panel will talk to all relevant stakeholders, including event staff and hotels, medical and compliance officers, team players and managers, so that we can get a better understanding of how the outbreak happened. The independent panel will make any recommendations that it considers appropriate. ”
Before the investigation even begins, the mess seems to have claimed one scalp – a doctor and the board man responsible for setting protocols in the league, Dr Sohail Saleem. But he is unlikely to be the latter, especially as more damaging facts continue to emerge in the results. The report the experts are expected to present is expected to shed further light on exactly what went wrong.
Since Fawad Ahmed tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, organizers scrambled to try and get a possible case under control, but it was already too late. Further cases were discovered in several different franchises, meaning that the league was not dealing with just one case, but any number of them. On Thursday morning, when further cases in various franchises came up, PSL 2021 was officially suspended. (Cricinfo)