Former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). Sources from his family confirmed the news that Mortaza’s tests came back positive and has been in isolation ever since.
Earlier reports by Bangladeshi media also suggested that some of his family members had earlier tested positive. Meanwhile, recently, former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi tested positive for COVID-19.
Mashrafe Mortaza tests COVID-19 positive
“He wasn’t keeping well for the last couple of days, so he had undergone a test. The results have come positive and now he has been home-quarantined,” said Mashrafe’s younger brother Morsalin bin Mortaza.
Now, Mortaza becomes the fourth player to be tested positive after Nafees Iqbal, Taufeeq Umar & Shahid Afridi. Meanwhile, the total tally of cases in Bangladesh has now crossed 8.68m out of which 4.26m cases have recovered. There has been a rapid increase in no of cases in Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan & Sri Lanka ever since the lockdown has been lifted.
The lockdown in India caused a humanitarian crisis as millions of migrants across the country struggled to get home. Pakistan’s caseload has almost doubled since the beginning of June, to over 160,000 cases.
The ongoing pandemic did cause immense loss to cricket, like the Pakistan Super League, India-South series and Australia – New Zealand series was called off midway due to the increasing number of cases all over the world.
The pandemic caused the Indian Premier League to be postponed, which was scheduled to start in April. as of now, ICC is in talks with Cricket Australia to see if the planned World T20 can take place later this year in October or it will have to be postponed. If the World T20 is postponed then it clearly opens a window for the IPL to be conducted.
