After Pakistani commentator Ramiz Raja on Tuesday said that England’s Alex Hales showed symptoms of the dreaded COVID-19 before flying back to England midway through the now-postponed Pakistan Super League (PSL), the English cricketer has dismissed the claim on the same day.
Taking to his official Twitter handle, the 31-year-old wrote, “Stop spreading fake news, dangerous behaviour.”
Stop spreading fake news, dangerous behaviour
— Alex Hales (@AlexHales1) March 17, 2020
Alex Hales was among the nine foreigners who left Pakistan before the novel Coronavirus had taken a fatal turn in Pakistan. He has reportedly self-isolated himself after returning to England.
Latest on Alex Hales is that he has self quarantined himself. No tests. Good news. Here I am though ready for my Corona test.
— Ramiz Raja (@iramizraja) March 17, 2020
“What I know is that he (Alex Hales) is yet to have tests but we don’t know whether the symptoms he has is of Corona or not. But we all now need to be very cautious and obviously adopt a common-sense approach to deal with this problem,” PTI had quoted Raja as saying.
Other than Hales, England cricketers Jason Roy, Tymal Mills, Liam Dawson, Liam Livingstone, Lewis Gregory, James Vince, West Indian Carlos Braithwaite, South African Rilee Roussouw and James Foster (Coach) returned home. Australia batsman Chris Lynn, who was playing for Lahore Qalandars, was the latest cricketer to withdraw midway.
Pakistan Cricket Board CEO Wasim Khan also said that a foreign player who participated in the league is suspected to have coronavirus. Khan did not reveal the name of the player or if he is currently in Pakistan or not.
In a statement, the PCB had said that it gave the option to all foreign players and support staff to withdraw from the tournament if they wanted to leave and franchises can replace them with local players and officials.
(With PTI inputs)