Adam Parore: About time drug cheats caught

The only thing surprising about the two Pakistan players failing drugs tests is that it hasn't happened sooner.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif failed tests for the steroid nandrolone and are out of the Champions Trophy.

They have a hearing coming up this week and B samples to confirm the findings.

If the results are confirmed they should have the book thrown at them, which means a two-year ban, although they might escape with a far shorter suspension, given that the Pakistan board is acting as the judicial panel.

I'm no doctor, but nandrolone does not occur naturally in the body in significant quantities, so draw your own conclusions.

I'm certain this has been going on for years with Pakistan's fast bowlers. We often looked sideways at what some of them were able to achieve. It's not normal to bowl 25 overs on a searing hot day and seem to get faster as the day wears on.

I remember thinking more than once in the subcontinent, "something's not right here". I prided myself on being pretty fit during my career. I'd look at some of these guys and think "you can't do that".

Then there are body shapes, which can give away telltale signs.

In my time, Pakistan was the only country we viewed with suspicion on this, and that's nothing to do with reverse swing, which they pioneered and which made them even more dangerous. That was a cricketing skill.

But had testing procedures been as they are now, I'm sure someone would have been collared 15 years ago.

As for our own speedster, I have an increasingly bad feeling about Shane Bond's future in the national team.

His latest setback with his back, for which he's had an MRI scan, comes on top of years of difficulties, going back to before he even made the NZ side.

I've seen this before. I remember Geoff Allott, during his excellent 1999 World Cup, in pain with his back, which ultimately led to his premature retirement. So too Dion Nash.

Bond is 31, so age is not on his side. Neither is his medical history, and he struggles in the heat. That is a problem when you consider about 60 per cent of one-day internationals these days are played on the subcontinent.

At next year's World Cup, it will be hot, but a different sort of heat from Brisbane or the sub-continent. Hot as in heading-to-the-beach hot.

Will Bond make it? I don't know, but if I was on the selection panel I wouldn't be banking on it. I would be planning for him not being there. If he is fit to go, it's a bonus.

Sadly, some talented cricketers have no luck with injuries. Bond is not the first and certainly won't be the last.

Irrespective of today's result against Sri Lanka, New Zealand are tracking pretty well at the Champions Trophy. We won it in 2000 in Kenya and if I was in coach John Bracewell's shoes, at the start of a big season, I wouldn't be getting too complicated about specifics just yet.

I'd simply be aiming to win. We have as good a chance as any. The pitches seem to suit us, as they are on the slow and low side.

In fact, they could turn out to be a bonus in terms of the World Cup. The days of pitches in the Caribbean being hard and fast are long gone. This might be a better dress rehearsal for the cup than any team might have expected.

NZ have 16 to 19 ODIs remaining after the Champions Trophy. They'll play Sri Lanka five times, Australia and England a minimum eight and maximum 11 times in the tri-series across the Tasman, have three more Chappell Hadlee trophy games then head for the World Cup.

That's plenty of time to tidy up selectors' plans.

The biggest issue? Once again, bowling at the death. Get that sorted out in the next couple of months and, with other components in reasonable shape, it will be a big weight off Bracewell's shoulders.