Vaughan wants ban for drug cheats

Vaughan and his team leave for the Caribbean on Friday

England captain Michael Vaughan wants life bans for any cricketers found guilty of taking drugs.

"If there's drugs been taken that have hugely affected your performance in a positive way I'd go for a ban for life.

"You don't want cheats in the game. You want people who are playing to [show] their talents, mental strength and the work they've done," he told Five Live.

World Cup organisers this week outlined a plan to target-test players suspected of taking illegal substances.

England chairman of selectors David Graveney said he supported Vaughan's thinking, although a life ban may not be enforceable.

"I don't know whether it should be a life ban, I don't know whether that stands up legally," he told Five Live.

"I agree with him in principle that people who are prepared to cut corners illegally to give themselves an advantage must face a very heavy penalty."

International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed said the game had been caused "a high level of embarrassment" by the doping controversy surrounding Pakistan pace bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.

Shoaib and Asif both tested positive for nandrolone last September but had lengthy bans quashed on appeal after claiming they had not knowingly taken the banned steroid.

The duo were both pulled out of the tournament on Thursday, with the Pakistan Cricket Board saying they had failed to recover from injuries.

Speed confirmed that both would have been tested had they been part of the Pakistan squad in the Caribbean.

"If they had been selected, the intention was that those players would have been target tested," he said.

"The fact that they weren't selected means they won't be tested. The target testing will continue, but it will involve other players."

Former Australia captain Allan Border, meanwhile, has welcomed the withdrawal of Shoaib and Asif, saying the World Cup could not afford any possible doping scandals.

"If it were to be true that it wasn't an injury, and it turned out be something else, then it would be better for all concerned that they didn't make the trip," he told the Australian newspaper.

"If it was revealed at some later stage they had taken an illegal substance, then the sport doesn't need another black eye.

"It is to be hoped that they are truly injured and that it's not a repeat of their previous [drug] problem."