Karachi Kings owner Salman Iqbal has revealed how the entire Alex Hales episode about the English cricketer contracting the novel coronavirus shaped out before the Pakistan Super League 2020 was eventually cancelled.
Hales was among the nine foreigners who had left Pakistan before the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 and before it had taken a fatal turn there.
On returning to England, Hales had informed that he did not test positive for the virus but admitted that he showed some symptoms and put himself in isolation.
Hales had tweeted: “I returned to the UK in the early hours of Saturday morning feeling perfectly fit and healthy and with absolutely no symptoms of the virus.
“However, I awoke early on Sunday morning having developed a fever and followed the government’s advice of self-isolation, a process I am obviously still following having developed a dry and persistent cough.
“At this stage, it has not been possible to be tested although I am hopeful that might be the case later today so that I can get absolute confirmation of my current health status.”
However, according to the Karachi Kings owner, Hales had texted him about the symptoms before leaving for England. “It was two o’clock in the morning in Pakistan and we had a message from Alex Hales saying: ‘Boss, I have symptoms of COVID-19 and I think you should all get tested,” Iqbal said on BBC’s ‘The Doosra Podcast’.
“I then got a call from coach Dean Jones saying he wanted to meet straight away. We were all scared. If you have the symptoms, you have to be isolated. I was trying hard to get somebody to Birmingham to get Hales tested. I even asked if my doctor from London would go to him but it couldn’t happen.