Cricket: Akhtar, Asif recalled due to positive drugs tests

Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif. Picture / Reuters

KARACHI - Pakistan are sending home fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif from the Champions Trophy cricket tournament in India after the pair tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.

Both cricketers face bans of up to two years if a second test confirms the positive result.

"They have tested positive for using nandrolone, which is a performance enhancing anabolic steroid," Saleem Altaf, director of cricket operations of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said today.

Altaf said both players had returned positive results for nandrolone in tests conducted on 25 players before the Champions Trophy in a World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Malaysia.

"We have asked for a second test (B sample). But for the moment they have been suspended and are being recalled from India," he said.

Altaf made it clear that since the tests were conducted internally and not in an International Cricket Council (ICC) tournament, the two players would appear before a PCB disciplinary committee.

"Under the ICC anti-doping rules the punishment for a first violation is two years. We don't have our own rules on such matters and might follow the ICC regulations," he added.

The PCB has also asked the ICC to allow two replacements for the disgraced players.

"It is a voluntary withdrawal of the players. So we can ask for replacements," Altaf said.

The team management in India has asked for a pacer and spinner and Altaf said Mohammad Sami, Shahid Nazir and Yasir Arafat were being discussed as possible replacements.

Pakistan cricket is still reeling from a ball-tampering fiasco which caused the team to forfeit the recent fourth test against England at The Oval, controversy over the captaincy and the resignation of board chairman Shaharyar Khan.

The Champions Trophy involves all the test-playing nations and is second only to the World Cup in importance

The Pakistan team skipped their scheduled morning training session in Jaipur following the news.

Skipper Younis Khan and coach Bob Woolmer were expected to address a news conference later on Monday, the eve of their opening Group B tie against Sri Lanka.

- REUTERS