Around 150 rooms booked for Pakistan-Australia series

• Well-placed say that number of rooms booked has been "unprecedented for a single event".
• Sources say since these rooms will be for single occupancy, requirements were to book in such big numbers.
• Australian cricketers will be accorded VVIP/state guest status-getting top-notched security cover during their stay in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the Aussies' tour to Pakistan, around 150 rooms have been booked on the three floors of a five-star hotel in Islamabad to accommodate Pakistan and Australian cricket teams.

The teams will be staying at the hotel for 15 days (first leg) of the series starting at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium from March 4, The News reported.

Well-placed sources told the publication that the number of rooms booked has been "unprecedented for a single event."

The sources added that since these rooms will be for single occupancy, there was a requirement to book them in large numbers.

The major part of the three floors will be out of bounds for every outsider due to the COVID-19 biosecure bubble requirements.

Read more: PCB announces revised schedule of Australia’s tour to Pakistan

It is the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that will be looking after the COVID-19 protocols during the squads’ stay at the hotel. Some tight protocols will be in place during the bubble and that includes no exposure or interaction with people outside the bubble, who may even be staying in the same hotel, sources added. 

The Pakistan team members, who are not part of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) playoffs, are to check in the hotel on February 23 followed by three Australian team officials who are arriving in Pakistan from other countries. 

They will go through their three-day quarantine period in Islamabad, unlike the Australia cricket team that will have their quarantine in Australia before flying on a charted plane to Pakistan. Even then, every member of the Australian cricket team will have to spend one day in isolation on their arrival in Islamabad on their arrival.

Australia cricketers are expected to arrive in the city in the wee hours of February 27 and would be free to follow their training schedule from February 28 onwards. However, the travelling team as well as locals will have to clear all the COVID-19 related tests before mingling with each other. 

Read more: PCB announces Test squad for Australia series

Australian cricketers will be accorded a VVIP/state guest status and will be receiving top-notch security cover during their stay in Pakistan.

All the related security agencies have already finalised a comprehensive security plan to keep a tight check within hotels and all routes plying to the Rawalpindi Stadium where a Test match will be played.

Both teams will return to Islamabad on March 26 after playing two back-to-back Test matches in Lahore and Karachi. The second leg of the stay in Islamabad will be for 15 days where both teams will be engaged in three ODIs and a one-off T20.