Punish Shoaib hard if guilty, says Matthew Hayden

Sydney, Oct 18 (UNI) Showing no sympathy to Shoaib Akhtar, Australian opener Matthew Hayden said the 'Rawalpindi Express' deserves severe punishment if found guilty of the doping charges.

Hayden, recuperating from a finger injury sustained during a domestic game, said the administrators should ensure that players who cheat by abusing banned substances are punished and called for a zero tolerance approach to doping.

''It's frustrating and it's disappointing. World cricket has prided itself on being a clean sport. It's a difficult game and as professional athletes you are always trying to come back from injuries and what not,'' Hayden was quoted as saying by the 'Daily Telegraph'.

''But it makes no excuse for the fact that...some drugs are legal and some drugs are illegal. Hopefully he hasn't made that choice to take illegal drugs,'' he added, advocating a tough stance against drug abuse in cricket.

Shoaib and fellow pacer Mohammad Asif were withdrawn from Pakistan's Champions Trophy team following revelations of the duo testing positive in tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Hayden said yougsters should be given a clear message that taking performance enhancing drugs would not be accepted by giving tough punishments to those who cheat.

''We want to have (and) we are very proud of having a clean sport that does it's best to maintain the standards so that we pass on to the youngsters the clear message that drugs in our game aren't acceptable,'' he said.

''Our administrations work particularly hard to make sure athletes are really responsible for whatever goes in their mouth, make sure it gets run across the right people,'' he added.

The lanky opener, however, admitted that if Shoaib fails to come out clean of the scandal, cricket would lose a champion bowler and said even he would miss his confrontations with the mercurial pacer.

''One of my favourite memories is watching his back turn after his third over in Sharjah when it was three million degrees and he went off the field and didn't bowl at me again for the rest of the game,'' he recalled.

''My least favourite memory is padding up and getting my off stump ripped out of the ground in Perth from around the wicket,'' he added.

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