Shoaib, Asif were on a high in England, claims report

Lahore, Oct 17 (UNI) Worst is certainly not over for the controversy-ridden Pakiatan cricket and close on the heels of dope scandal involving Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, a sensational report in a national daily here claims that the pacer duo smoked cannabis during the England tour last month.

According to 'Dawn', an eye-witness from last month's eventful tour of England disclosed that both Shoaib and Asif smoked cigarettes filled with the 'stuff' after Pakistan had won the third ODI at the Rose Bowl in Southampton on September 5, barely a fortnight after the infamous Oval fiasco.

After the day/night fixture, Shoaib was seen allegedly smoking a cannabis-filled cigarette on the lawn of the team hotel along with Pakistan bowling coach, Waqar Younis.

Waqar himself has a dubious distinction of being detained, alongside Wasim Akram, Aqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed for possessing marijuana in Grenada during the 1992-93 tour of the West Indies.

Mohd Asif, meanwhile, practised something similar in the privacy of his room on the hotel's first floor. The eye-witness saw Asif pull out some of the tobacco from his cigarette to stuff it with the banned substance, the report said.

He then lit up his cigarette in presence of Azhar Mota, an England-based recruiting agent who had come to strike a deal with Asif for a county contract.

Asif was then seen smoking away merrily as he asked Azhar Mota to fetch him a lucrative contract.

''Azhar bhai, I am interested in a contract worth 100,000 pounds because only then I would be in a position to give you 10,000 (as commission) if the deal is successful,'' the eye-witness quoted Asif was as saying.

The eye-witness, who had come to see the matches from the United States and was at the hotel to meet the players that day, also claimed that he saw Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan all-rounder, sitting in Mohammad Yousuf's room where Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were busy playing cards.

He saw Azhar passing on two small boxes, used for storing naswar, to the players.

According to the eye-witness, Afridi took one box which had naswar inside it while the other box containing the cannabis was passed on to Asif.

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