PCB tells WADA, ICC, IOC to stay out of dope-probe

Lahore, Nov 26 (UNI) Asserting that the doping scandal involving Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif was it's internal matter, the Pakistan Cricket Board has asked the ICC, IOC and WADA to stay out of the issue.

''Pakistan Cricket Board itself had conducted tests on players and these were out-of-competition tests. As such IOC, ICC or the World Anti Doping Agency have nothing to do with it,'' PCB President Nasim Ashraf was quoted as saying in local media reports here.

Dr Ashraf also revealed the decision on appeals filed by Shoaib and Asif, who were handed two-year and one-year bans respectively following a positive dope test, will be out tomorrow.

''We will totally abide by the verdict of Appeals Committee which is likely to come out with its decision by Monday,'' he said.

Both Shoaib and Asif have pleaded innocence and have claimed to have never knowingly taken performance enhancing drugs.

The duo, however, failed to explain the more than stipulated presence of banned anabolic steroid nadrolone's presence in their body at the time of the tests.

UNI XC PM YA PM1049