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Doping tribunal to start Saturday

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KARACHI< Pakistan -- The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tribunal investigating the positive drug tests returned by fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif will hold its preliminary hearing on Saturday.

Shoaib and Asif were recalled from the Champions Trophy in India on Monday.

The pair tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.

The board announced that Dr Waqar Ahmad, who is director of sports medicine on the Pakistan Sports Board, would join former test captain Intikhab Alam and barrister Shahid Hamid on the panel.

"The tribunal is scheduled to have its first hearing on Saturday and they will decide how soon they can submit their recommendations," PCB director of cricket operations Saleem Altaf told reporters.

Under International Cricket Council doping rules the penalty for a first doping offense is a ban of two years. However, the PCB said since the tests were conducted internally it would take its own decision.

Both Akhtar and Asif have pleaded their innocence, saying they have not deliberately taken any banned substance. The PCB has forbidden them from speaking further to the media.

The Sports Medicine Association of Pakistan criticized the PCB for prematurely disclosing Akhtar and Asif's names in connection with the doping scandal.

Clause 16.2 of the ICC's Anti-Doping Code says the ICC and its members should not publicly identify cricket players whose samples have resulted in adverse findings, the association's president Danish Zaheer said in a statement.

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