Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service Mumbai, July 14
Mohammad Asif, the Pakistani fast bowler with a drug-tainted past, has now tested positive for doping in the recently concluded IPL series. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organisers of the IPL series today revealed that Asif had tested positive for taking a banned performance enhancing substance. Asif was among eight players who were tested during the tournament.
“The Indian Premier League compared the result from the WADA-approved laboratory in Switzerland with the data collected by IDTM, the Sweden-based independent agency which organised the anti-doping testing in accordance with World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) standards, to confirm the player in violation is Mr Mohammad Asif,” the IPL said.
As per the normal procedure, the second sample collected from Asif will be sent for confirmatory tests. Should the sample test positive as well, a tribunal set up by the IPL will probe into the findings. According to the BCCI, the three-member tribunal will comprise former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, former Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Chancellor Dr Ravi Bapat and lawyer Shirish Gupte.
Asif has a chequered past and had tested positive for a banned substance during the Champions Trophy held in India in 2006. Recently, he spent 19 days in police custody in Dubai after traces of opium was found in his wallet. The Pakistan Cricket Board is in the midst of probing the incident.
UNI adds: “The IPL compared the result
from the WADA-approved laboratory in Switzerland with the data collected by IDTM, the Sweden-based independent agency which organised the tests,” the IPL added in a statement.
“It was also checked if Asif had applied for and was granted a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). It was found that Asif had not applied for a TUE. A note in writing has been sent to the player and his home board and to the franchise (Delhi Daredevils) on the findings,” the statement added.
Asif, however, will have the right to request that his ‘B’ sample, which was supplied at the same time as the one that tested positive, be used for another check which he and his representative can attend along with an IPL representative.
If Asif’s sample ‘B’ also tests positive, the speedster could be in for a big trouble and could face a possible ban of five years from the
IPL.
