ormer cricketer Zafar Sarfraz succumbed to the novel coronavirus here in the city, officials at Lady Reading Hospital confirmed late Monday.
Sarfraz, 50, was diagnosed with the COVID19 infection six days ago. He had been on a ventilator for the past three days, hospital officials added.
The cricketer had played first-class matches for Peshawar, according to the president of the Sports Writers Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ejaz Ahmad.
Born in 1969, Sarfraz was a left-handed batter and slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He played first-class from 1988 to 1994 and List A from 1990 to 1992.
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Sarfraz has become the first professional cricketer to succumb to COVID-19 in Pakistan.
Sarfaraz had made his debut in 1988 and he went on to score 616 runs from 15 first-class games for Peshawar.
He also managed to score 96 runs from six one-day games before retiring in 1994. He then took up the role of coaching both the senior and the Under-19 Peshawar teams in the mid-2000s.
Zafar was the brother of Pakistan international player Akhtar Sarfraz.
Akhtar had passed away 10 months ago in the same city after a battle with colon cancer.
Peshawar, a city in the north of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has 744 of the nearly 5500 active cases in the country. Nearly 100 people have died from the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan.
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