HARARE (Cricinfo): Zimbabwe will tour Pakistan as scheduled next month with official confirmation all but imminent. This was confirmed to ESPNcricinfo by Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani, who said he was “hopeful we will be cleared to travel to Pakistan” and that an official announcement would be made shortly.
That would appear to end any uncertainty surrounding the limited-overs tour set to begin from October 20, with Multan in line to host an international fixture for the first time in 12 years.
The series will be held in a bio-secure bubble, with the PCB yet to formalise in full the standard operating procedures which are to be followed during the series, including the period of quarantine that Zimbabwe’s players will have to undergo. The PCB are privately weighing up the merits of a quarantine period as short as three days, to one as long as a week. They are understood to be in talks with the ECB and ICC for input.
England were the first cricket board in world to host an international series in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic by creating a bio-secure bubble and went on to play West Indies, Pakistan and Australia. The PCB accrued some experience of the procedures, given the Pakistan side were in England on tour, and are forming their own protocols. It was understood the PCB couldn’t afford the company hired by the ECB to carry out the procedures.