In yet another act of hypocrasy, the Pakastani Cricket Board overturned suspensions on two of its foremost bowlers.
Pakistani cricketers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have had their suspension for testing positive to a banned substance overturned at an appeals committee in Karachi, Pakistan on Tuesday.
Akhtar and Asif were banned for 2 years and 12 months respectively by a Pakistan Cricket Boards tribunal in November after both tested positive to the banned substance Nandrolone just weeks before the ICC Champions Trophy in India in October.
The pace bowlers protested their innocence from the outset, stating they never knowingly took the banned substance. A three-man appeals tribunal appointed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) agreed and exonerated the pair of their bans.
The appeals committee, comprised of Fakhruddin Ibrahim, former Test cricketer Haseeb Ahsan and doping expert Dr Danish Zaheer, voted 2-1 to support the bowler's appeal that they were not advised on taking vitamin supplements that may have led to them testing positive.
"This appeal committee therefore holds that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif will not be deemed to have committed a doping offence," Ibrahim said on SkySports.
"The ban and punishment imposed by the earlier tribunal is hereby set aside as being contrary to the provision of laws."
Ibrahim said it was now up to the Pakistan Cricket Board to decide if both bowlers could play in the ongoing one-day series against the West Indies, but both players will be eligible to play in next year's cricket World Cup.
How do these people do this, and get a man fired for doing his job?
Cricket at the Board level is in the pits.
I agree it is a bit of a sham. I think it was Bob Woolmer (Pakistan coach) who was being interviewed and said that the drugs education system in Pakistan is practically non-existant though. Whereas in Aus and other countries they have things like special phone lines that an athlete just has to ring and ask if what he's taking is naughty, at the root level of Pakistani cricket they have virtually no help, and so it is not totally unbelievable that one if not both of these guys did not know what they were taking. TBH Shoaib should have known better as he's experienced and has played top level in various countries for a long time.
Still this doesn't justify just letting them off IMO - they should be made an example of if anything as this would help show that drug taking is not acceptable in Pakistan cricket.