An appeals panel yesterday overturned doping bans on Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif in a move bound to attract fresh controversy to Pakistan cricket.
A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tribunal on Nov. 1 banned Akhtar and Asif for two years and one year, respectively, after both players tested positive for the banned steroid Nandrolone.
Fakhruddin Ebrahim, chairman of the three-member appeals panel, said that on a 2-1 split decision, it was setting aside that punishment.
"This appeals committee holds that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif cannot be deemed to have committed a doping offense" under PCB anti-doping regulations, Ebrahim told reporters in Karachi.
There was no immediate reaction from the International Cricket Council, the game's governing body, which had hailed the initial ruling as a demonstration of cricket's zero tolerance of drug use.
The appeal panel's written verdict explained that neither bowler had been warned or cautioned against dietary supplements that apparently led to them testing positive for the steroid.
"Hence this appeals committee by majority of two to one is of the considered view that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif have successfully established that they held an honest and reasonable belief that the supplements ingested by them did not contain any prohibited substances," the verdict said.
In Karachi, Asif welcomed the verdict and said he was hopeful of playing in the current one-day international series in Pakistan against the West Indies.
"My lawyers gave me a lot of hope and my parents also supported me," he told reporters.
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