PCB briefs players about strict regimen to be followed for England tour.

Byline: Mohammad Yaqoob

LAHORE -- The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are in the initial stages of working things out for Pakistan team's tour to England in July-August. However, they are likely to face several hurdles ahead before crossing the bridge.

Last Friday both the cricket boards held a teleconference as the ECB briefed the PCB officials about its arrangements to make the tour safe and secure for everyone. In the next step, the PCB on Wednesday briefed the Pakistani players in light of that discussion.

'The response of the players was positive but still lot of work has to be done to overhaul the hurdles in the way before going ahead with the tour and of course we want to ensure the well being and health of the players and the support staff,' a PCB spokesman said.

'The players are just briefed and now they will take their time to think about their availability for the tour, considering the entire picture in the backdrop of the restrictions they have to face during the whole process, starting from their training at the NCA till the end of the tour,' he said.

'Under the new central contract there is no binding on the players to tour England,' he said. 'Every player is independent in taking a decision, either he wants to go or not. The only loss they will suffer is that they will not get the money in the shape of match fees, daily allowances but there will be no reduction in their central contract amount,' he clarified.

It may be mentioned here that the PCB has plans to organise a training camp from the first week of June at the NCA. After preparing the SOPs for the training camp, the PCB has to get its approval from the government of Punjab. So the players will go through a long period of almost three months - commencing with the training camp till the end of the tour - under a bio-secure environment.

Under this environment, not only the players but their support staff, including coaches even cooks and waiters would not be allowed to go to any...