Shoaib to appear in dope test along with contracted players

Karachi (PTI): Though Shoaib Akhtar is not among the contracted player of the Pakistan Cricket Board, the maverick pacer has been told to appear in a dope test along with national team members.

PCB's decision to ask Shoaib, despite he not being a contracted player of the Pakistan board, undergo the test comes on the heels of media reports claiming syringes were found in his bag before his departure for the Indian Premier League.

While there is nothing extraordinary with the contracted players being put through a dope test, the decision to ask Shoaib too undergo it has created a stir.

Shoaib is already fighting a five-year ban for his comments against the board. He was granted one month reprieve by an appellate tribunal to allow him play in the IPL.

Akhtar's ban, which disallowed him playing anywhere in Pakistan or for Pakistan, will be reinstated from June 4 when appellate tribunal resumes hearing on his appeal against the ban imposed by the board.

Questions are being asked whether this has something to do with reports that custom officials had allegedly found large quantity of empty syringes in his luggage at the airport before leaving for India.

No board official was available to confirm or deny the development as the officials are in Colombo for the Asian Cricket Council meeting, but sources say the pacer would undergo the test even if he is under ban.

Akhtar tested positive in 2006 for taking a banned substance and was banned for two years along with Mohammad Asif but later the ban was overturned after an inquiry panel upheld his appeal.

source : www.hindu.com

Indian Premier League to conduct dope test on players

NEW DELHI: Chairman Lalit Modi said that Indian Premier League will conduct a random dope test on the players participating in the Twenty20 tournament. After a report in the Nation , which claimed that Shoaib Akhtar was questioned about a large number of syringes in his baggage prior to leaving for Mumbai earlier this month at the Karachi airport, the IPL commissioner announced that the test will be conducted in 2 to 3 days.

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board has played down a report in a section of the media that fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was questioned at the Karachi airport.

A report in the Nation said that prior to boarding the flight to Mumbai en route to Kolkata the custom officials had questioned Shoaib on an inordinately large supply of syringes in his luggage-reportedly as many as three dozen in number.

The fast bowler, who is playing for Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders team in the Indian Premier League, told the custom officials that he needed the syringes because he was a diabetic, the report said.

The first time one has heard off the fast bowler suffering from this ailment. When a senior official of the board was asked about the incident, he said it was no big deal as the syringes were empty and contained no substances.

Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer also showed ignorance over the medical history of Shoaib saying he would have to check up to find out if the fast bowler was a diabetic.

But he made it clear that Shoaib had gone to India to play in the IPL and currently he was under the preview of the IPL rules and regulations.

When reminded about Shoaib's past record of having tested positive for a banned substance, nandrolone in 2006 with team-mate Mohammad Asif, Naghmi said the IPL was recognised by the International Cricket Council but it was not an ICC event.

"I don't thing it is a big deal. The syringes were empty and first we have to confirm if the report has got all the facts right. There is no question of the Pakistan Board contemplating any action against Shoaib for this," he said.

Shoaib is playing in the IPL after the three-member appellate tribunal, hearing his appeal against the five-year ban imposed on him, suspended the ban for a month to allow him to play in the cash-rich Twenty20 competition.

Source : timesofindia