Former Pakistan first-class cricketer Zafar Sarfaraz dies due to coronavirus in Peshawar

Former Pakistan first-class cricketer Zafar Sarfaraz has passed away after testing positive for COVID-19.

The 50-year-old had been on a ventilator in the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Peshawar for the last three days, ESPNCricinfo reported.

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.