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RAWALPINDI - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is to take up the cases of Pakistani fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The two players were cleared of doping charges on Tuesday by a Pakistan board appeals tribunal.
WADA official Frederic Donze told a Pakistani newspaper that the appeals commission's decision appeared to be unreasonable and a violation of the international anti-doping code.
"We have decided to take up the matter with the ICC. My personal view is that the decision taken by the Pakistan Cricket Board panel is unreasonable," Donze was quoted as saying in The News on Wednesday.
Donze said WADA would first look into the decision of the tribunal before making further comments.
The ICC said the judgement exonerating Shoaib and Asif highlighted inconsistencies in Pakistan's anti-doping process and regulations.
"It is vital that cricket takes heed of the judgement and that the lessons it provides are disseminated amongst all our members," ICC President Percy Sonn said in a statement.
"Of primary importance is that all those members revisit their own regulations and align them both with the ICC's Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Agency Code."
Sonn added that although cricket had taken significant strides forward in addressing the issue of drug use, work needed to be done to educate players and synchronise members' efforts to attain a drug-free sport.
"The key fact is that it is vital for all our members to maintain a zero tolerance on the use of drugs in our sport," he said.
"That is the idea behind the ICC's drug-testing regime at all our events since 2002 and our adoption of the WADA Code in July of this year.
Shoaib and Asif were banned for two years and one year last month after a positive out-of-competition test for nandrolone but the appeals panel ruled they had not had sufficient warning the supplements they were taking could be contaminated by the steroid.
The duo were the first cricketers to be banned for a doping offence since Australian leg spinner Shane Warne was suspended for a year by Cricket Australia for taking a banned substance in 2003.
- REUTERS
