KARACHI: Publicly, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is defying World Anti-Doping Agency and the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) on the case of fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.
But privately, the Board officials are making behind-the-scenes moves to avoid any embarrassment if they had to defend the dope-tainted players in front of the CAS after the New Year break.
A PCB official told this correspondent that though the Board is hoping that its stance that WADA or CAS has no legal right to challenge Pakistan’s decision to clear Shoaib and Asif would help end the doping saga, it is in the meantime, in constant touch with legal experts including a leading British sports lawyer Mark Gay.
The lawyer has been working for the PCB on a few cases since helping them out in the aftermath of The Oval Test fiasco. The official said that the idea is to be fully ready for any kind of scenario that emerges in the next couple of weeks.
He said that the PCB is ready to go all the way to defend Shoaib and Asif in a bid to keep them in contention for next spring’s World Cup in the West Indies. Asif is seen as a key figure in Pakistan’s bowling attack and would be spearheading it during next month’s tour of South Africa. Shoaib has been overlooked for the trip but because of his sheer pace, he is regarded as an important player in Pakistan’s World Cup campaign.
Both the players were banned after testing positive for illegal performance-enhancing substance nandrolone but later won their appeals and are eligible to play international cricket. However, there is some uncertainty over their future because WADA has appealed against Pakistan’s U-turn over the doping bans in the Lausanne-based CAS.
The high-powered CAS arbitrates international sports’ disputes and WADA officials believe that it can help punish the Pakistani pacers who did fail dope tests in October but were let off by an appeals committee on the grounds that they were not told about possible contamination of protein supplements.
However, the PCB has rejected the intervention of both WADA and CAS on the grounds that it is not a signatory to any international anti-doping code. “The dope tests though which Shoaib and Asif were caught were carried out internally by the PCB.
We allowed proper legal procedure through which the players were initially banned and later cleared by committees formed by competent judges, cricketers and doping experts. The case is closed and we believe WADA or CAS is not authorised to challenge it,” said the official.
He said that the PCB has consulted the matter with expert lawyers who agree that the Board has a point. However, if the case does come up for a debate in the CAS then the PCB would support the players through all possible measures.
“Shoaib and Asif are two of our leading cricketers and they have been exonerated by an appeals court. If there is a danger of them getting banned against for the same doping offence then the PCB would use all its resources to help them,” said the official.
He rejected the impression that Shoaib has fallen out of the PCB good books after refusing to wear a sponsor’s logo in this month’s Twenty20 Cup in Karachi and might be ditched by the Board. “Shoaib got punished for what he did,” said the official.
The maverick pacer was fined Rs10,000 for his refusal to wear the logo but there was a whispering campaign that the Board might have handed Shoaib the real punishment for his act of defiance by ignoring him for the tour of South Africa. “It is a false impression. The only reason why Shoaib was dropped was his lack of match fitness,” said the official.
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