Shakib undergoes COVID-19 test

Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan underwent COVID-19 test on Saturday following his arrival from the USA, said BCB officials on Saturday.

Shakib is expected to receive the result soon as that is one of the prerequisites to take part in the mandatory fitness test that will make him eligible for the upcoming Bangabandhu T20 tournament, slated from the third week of November.

“He has completed his corona test. We are expecting to receive his result soon and will be taking part in the fitness test if it comes out negative,” BCB chief physician Debashish Chowdhury told media on Saturday.

The BCB earlier announced that players selected in the draft list for the upcoming T20 tournament in November-December will have to undergo a mandatory fitness test before being considered eligible for the competition.

BCB later published a test that has been planned to particularly assess the fitness levels of cricketers outside the National Team, High Performance Team and Under-19 set ups.

BCB announced recently that 113 cricketers will take part in the fitness test scheduled on November 9 and 10 that includes Shakib as well, who is looking forward to starting playing competitive cricket again as he finished serving a one-year ban imposed by ICC for failing to report corrupt approaches on October 29.

However, Shakib landed in a fresh controversy soon upon his arrival from the USA on Thursday night within few hours from his arrival allegedly without following the norms of quarantine stipulated for the returnees from abroad, raising quite a few eyebrows.

According to the directives of Directorate General of Health Services, international traveler shall undergo 14 days of home quarantine if he carries COVID-19 negative certificate while if someone does not carry a COVID-19 negative certificate he shall go to our institutional quarantine.

Debashish added that they had requested the health authorities to excuse Shakib from the quarantine if he was tested COVID-19 negative.

BCB followed a similar route to reduce the quarantine period of foreign coaches upon their arrival but still, they had to stay back in the hotel for at least seven days.

“We have given a letter to DGHS. He (Shakib) will be boarding the airplane with a corona negative certificate. After arrival, he will again be tested in a DGHS approved lab. If he tests negative again, only then he may not need quarantine. That is the general practice,” Debashish concluded.