Shoaib Malik Gets Permission To Meet Sania Mirza And Son

The Pakistan Cricket Board has given special permission to cricketer Shoaib Malik to meet his wife Sania Mirza and son Izhaan Mirza Malik. Sources say that he has not met his wife and son for five months due to the coronavirus induced lockdown. Before the lockdown, Shoaib was involved for Peshawar Zalmi in the HBL Pakistan Super League, which started on 20 February before it was suspended on 17 March.

PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said that, “Unlike the rest of us, Shoaib Malik has not seen his immediate family for nearly five months due to his commitments and the subsequent international travel bans following the Covid-19 pandemic. As travel restrictions are now slowly easing out and there is an opportunity for a family reunion, it is appropriate that at a human level we show compassion as part of our duty of care and respect Shoaib’s request. We have spoken with the England and Wales Cricket Board who understand the situation and have agreed to make an exception by helping Shoaib enter the country on 24 July. Of course, Shoaib will follow the UK government’s policies on visitors entering the country before integrating with the side.”

Following the coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan will play a three-test series and same number of T20 Internationals against England in August-September in a bio-safe environment in England. On June 28th, the 29-member Pakistan squad will travel to Manchester and from there, they will leave for Derbyshire where they will be subjected to 14-day quarantine. They will be allowed to train and practice according to the standard operating procedure for the series.

Recently, in an interview Shoaib Malik said that he wasn't nervous about marrying Sania Mirza due to the strained relationship between India and Pakistan. He said that, "In a marriage, you are not concerned about where your partner comes from or what is going on between the nations or in politics. That is not our domain. If you love someone and the person whom you loves should be all that matters, regardless of which country you come from. On a wider point, I have many friends who are Indian and I don’t find anything strained because of the relationship between the two countries. I am a cricketer, not a politician.”