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Akhtar, Asif being called back
Agha Akbar
LAHORE - Close on the heels of the Oval fiasco and the Younis Khan tantrum, Pakistan cricket is likely to hit another major crisis with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif reportedly being pulled out of the Champions Trophy squad after an internal PCB test has found them positive for using performance enhancing drugs.
A source close to the PCB chairman revealed to this writer that there were apprehensions about Akhtar and Asif being tested positive for using steroids and they could be called back home by the PCB voluntarily, maybe as soon as today in the afternoon. “This is so because the new Pakistan Board under Dr Nasir Ashraf wanted to come clean on such practices by discouraging them as openly as possible”.
The altruistic motives aside, what the PCB is apparently trying to do is damage control before the fertilizer really hits the fan.
The ICC, getting firmer and firmer on drug abuse, was likely to conduct doping tests on two members of each participating team after every encounter during the Champions Trophy. And it was most likely that Akhtar and Asif, the two star performers in Pakistan’s much-vaunted pace attack, would have been tested sooner than later.
And if found out these would have been the two most high profile cases since Shane Warne was found using diuretic immediately before the 2003 World Cup and banned on the morning of the start of the global event from all cricket for one year.
The ICC has since gotten even more ambitious in terms of getting the sport clean of spurious practices, and the penalty for drug abuse is now double than that imposed on Warne - two years.
The sources involved in decision-making in the PCB divulged that if the Board decided to pull Akhtar and Asif out of the Champions Trophy squad on its own, it would be doing so for the fear that they were quite likely to be caught later in the tournament for the drug infringement. Such a finding would not only have put their individual careers in serious jeopardy but also cause serious set back to Pakistan’s prospects of winning the World Cup in 2007.
“We would not call them back stating that their mother was sick. We would not deal in lies, yet we would try and protect the careers of our star performers and make sure that they abandon their errant ways. The important thing is that the PCB intends to operate in an open and ethical environment from now,” was how a source high in the Board described the situation.
All said and done, this is a serious blow to Pakistan’s chances of doing well in the Champions Trophy, an event that the green shirts have not won - much like the most dominant team of the recent times, Australia - despite reaching the semi-finals twice, in 2000 and 2004.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/oct-2006/16/index2.php
Agha Akbar
LAHORE - Close on the heels of the Oval fiasco and the Younis Khan tantrum, Pakistan cricket is likely to hit another major crisis with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif reportedly being pulled out of the Champions Trophy squad after an internal PCB test has found them positive for using performance enhancing drugs.
A source close to the PCB chairman revealed to this writer that there were apprehensions about Akhtar and Asif being tested positive for using steroids and they could be called back home by the PCB voluntarily, maybe as soon as today in the afternoon. “This is so because the new Pakistan Board under Dr Nasir Ashraf wanted to come clean on such practices by discouraging them as openly as possible”.
The altruistic motives aside, what the PCB is apparently trying to do is damage control before the fertilizer really hits the fan.
The ICC, getting firmer and firmer on drug abuse, was likely to conduct doping tests on two members of each participating team after every encounter during the Champions Trophy. And it was most likely that Akhtar and Asif, the two star performers in Pakistan’s much-vaunted pace attack, would have been tested sooner than later.
And if found out these would have been the two most high profile cases since Shane Warne was found using diuretic immediately before the 2003 World Cup and banned on the morning of the start of the global event from all cricket for one year.
The ICC has since gotten even more ambitious in terms of getting the sport clean of spurious practices, and the penalty for drug abuse is now double than that imposed on Warne - two years.
The sources involved in decision-making in the PCB divulged that if the Board decided to pull Akhtar and Asif out of the Champions Trophy squad on its own, it would be doing so for the fear that they were quite likely to be caught later in the tournament for the drug infringement. Such a finding would not only have put their individual careers in serious jeopardy but also cause serious set back to Pakistan’s prospects of winning the World Cup in 2007.
“We would not call them back stating that their mother was sick. We would not deal in lies, yet we would try and protect the careers of our star performers and make sure that they abandon their errant ways. The important thing is that the PCB intends to operate in an open and ethical environment from now,” was how a source high in the Board described the situation.
All said and done, this is a serious blow to Pakistan’s chances of doing well in the Champions Trophy, an event that the green shirts have not won - much like the most dominant team of the recent times, Australia - despite reaching the semi-finals twice, in 2000 and 2004.
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/oct-2006/16/index2.php
