Pakistan suspends Asif after failed drug test
KARACHI, Pakistan: Pakistan has suspended the pace bowler Mohammad Asif from all cricket after he failed a dope test in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League, the Pakistan Cricket Board said Tuesday.
The board said the ban would remain in effect until his appeal is heard and his case decided by the anti-doping committee of the Indian league and the International Cricket Council. It said he was banned from participating in all aspects of cricket, including its organization, administration and promotion.
Shafqat Naghmi, senior Pakistan Cricket Board official, said the board had a strict zero-tolerance policy toward doping and would assist the ICC, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Indian league in enforcing the anti-doping regulations in the Asif case.
“We will be closely monitoring the case and will offer every reasonable assistance to the ICC and other ICC members as they may require for the implementation and enforcement of their anti-doping regulations,” Naghmi said.
Asif was omitted Tuesday from Pakistan’s Champions Trophy preliminary squad for the tournament in Pakistan in September. The selectors had initially included him on the list last week before delaying its release.
He confirmed Tuesday that he would challenge the results of the drug test by requesting that a second sample, the “B” sample, be tested.
The latest doping controversy is the third drug-related scandal in Pakistan cricket since 2006, all involving Asif.
Shoaib Akhtar and Asif tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in 2006 in out-of-competition tests conducted by the Pakistan board before the Champions Trophy in India. They were initially banned for two years but the suspension was overturned by the board’s anti-doping appeals committee, which said the two said they had taken supplements in the belief they did not contain prohibited substances.
Last month Asif spent 19 days in detention in Dubai for alleged possession of an illegal substance. He still faces an investigation by a Pakistan board fact-finding committee although he was released without charge by the Dubai public prosecutor.
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