Cricket News: The Test career of Shoaib Akhtar, the most ferocious fast bowler in the world, may be at an end after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) yesterday imposed a two-year ban for illegal drug use. Shoaib was found guilty of using nandrolone, a steroid, and will be 33 by the time his ban is complete.
His fast-bowling partner, Mohammad Asif, was treated more leniently for the same offence, receiving a one-year ban. Both tested positive in internal tests conducted by the Pakistan board in the build-up to the Champions Trophy.
Under the rules of the International Cricket Council (ICC), a two-year ban is the minimum penalty for a first offence. But the ICC are unlikely to protest. The implementation of cricket's anti-drugs policy has been strewn with difficulties, and the fact Pakistan have dared to pass sentence on their players is likely to be met with great relief.
This is particularly true amid the heightened nationalistic atmosphere since Pakistan were judged to have forfeited the Oval Test against England last summer by refusing to take the field in protest at accusations of ball-tampering by Darrell Hair, whose immediate future as a Test umpire will be decided at an ICC executive meeting in Dubai over the next 48 hours.
The World Anti-Drug Agency, Wada, are also likely to be satisfied by Pakistan's willingness to punish two of their top players, especially with the World Cup only four months away, and concentrate instead on the inadequacies of cricket's drugs procedure.
With Shoaib and Asif, Pakistan might have entered the World Cup as favourites, but no longer.
Shoaib, the only bowler to be officially credited with a 100mph delivery, admitted to a veritable cabinet full of supplements, isotonic treatments and herbal medicines, claiming they were all "good for him" and that he was unaware of potential illegality.
But Asif's defence exposed the limitations of cricket's rudimentary drugs policy. The three-strong tribunal accepted that he had never attended an anti-drugs lecture and that there was doubt whether he had even received a list of anti-doping regulations or banned substances.
The tribunal, which included former Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam, concluded: "Mohammad Asif's command of English is limited and we are clear that he could not have understood the Wada publications without someone helping him to understand their contents. No such guidance or counselling was provided."
Mal Speed, the ICC's chief executive, admitted in Jaipur a fortnight ago that only five Test nations - England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan - carry out what he described as "regular" tests. But outsiders would view the testing even by these nations as spasmodic at best.
The pair can appeal the decision either with the same tribunal within seven days; with a different committee appointed by the PCB within 30 days; or with the sports court of arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Of the last 15 appeals against drugs bans to the latter, however, not one has succeeded in reducing the length of punishment.
When called before the initial hearing, the pair insisted they did not take any banned substances knowingly, but they waived their rights to have their B samples tested.
It is almost four years since cricket's last high-profile doping case, when Australian star Shane Warne was sent home on the eve of his side's World Cup campaign, after testing positive for a diuretic.
Cricket Australia's initial two-year punishment was reduced by half on appeal and Wada did not intervene.
Guardian Service
