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Shoaib to appeal against drugs ban

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KARACHI, Pakistan -- Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will appeal against his two-year drugs ban after a tribunal's report showed the paceman took vitamins and herbal medicines without telling team staff.

"Shoaib is devastated by the decision and he is definitely going to appeal against the ban," the controversial fast bowler's personal doctor and close friend Tauseef Razzaq said in Karachi.

A Pakistan Cricket Board tribunal banned Shoaib, 31, for two years and fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif, 23, for one on Wednesday after they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.

The punishment could end Shoaib's incident-filled career, as he would be 33 years old when he would be free to take the new ball again for Pakistan and he is already prone to injuries.

Enigmatic Shoaib -- known as the "Rawalpindi Express" after bowling the quickest delivery ever recorded in 2003 at just over 100mph (161kph) -- has refused to comment since the decision.

But his doctor said the bowler was consulting his lawyer about appealing to the high court against the ban as he felt the decision was "unjust and career-threatening."

Tauseef said he and other medical counsel tried their best to convince the tribunal that Shoaib was innocent.

"There are a number of examples where athletes were given the benefit of the doubt for using substances unknowingly and there are studies by renowned universities of the world, on whose basis Shoaib should have been cleared," said Tauseef.

Shoaib said last month that he had never "knowingly" taken performance-enhancing drugs. He and Asif both waived their right to have their "B samples" tested before the tribunal handed down its verdict.

Under International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations no sanction is imposed for doping if the player is able to establish that he did not know or suspect he took a banned drug, the tribunal said in its report into the scandal.

But the 19-page report also said that Shoaib took supplements, vitamins and herbal medicines and never told the team staff and doctor about their use.

"Shoaib told the tribunal he was taking vitamins T-BOMB II, Promax-50 and Viper" obtained from a shop, from London and from friends, the report said.

"Shoaib said that he had been taking them since 1999 on the basis of general wisdom based on his contacts with friends and others and that he had never consulted even his medical counsels."

The bowler also admitted he failed to tell coach Bob Woolmer, team physiotherapist Darryn Lifson or PCB medical advisor Sohail Saleem "because they have never asked him and none of them were banned items."

His medical counsel also said Shoaib had been taking a herbal medicine called kushta, or tribulus terrestris, which he said was not banned, the report added.

Shoaib tested negative on two previous occasions in 2003 and 2004.

He further said that he had never seen a WADA (World Anti-doping Agency) list of banned substances or WADA's Athlete Guide which PCB officials said were given to players prior to the England tour in August 2006.

The report explained the lighter ban on Asif was because he was a "relative newcomer" who had never been tested previously and that there was some doubt that he had ever been given the list of banned drugs.

Lifson said Asif had stopped using a vitamin supplement bought locally "as soon as he was told to do so", adding he also had little understanding of English.

Praise from ICC

The International Cricket Council on Thursday praised the Pakistan board for their handing of the issue.

"It is a tragedy that the careers of two cricketers have been tarnished in this way but, at the same time, the judgment emphasizes that cricket has a zero tolerance of drug use," ICC president Percy Sonn said in a statement.

"I have read the judgment handed down by the PCB Anti-Doping Commission and feel I must commend the group for its work."

Shoaib and Asif had been called back from the Champions Trophy in India after the board received the results of out-of-competitionn tests carried out in Pakistan before the tournament.

Sonn said that from an ICC perspective, the judgment was very satisfactory and that it made constant reference to guidelines laid down in the PCB's anti-doping code.

"That is the idea behind the ICC's drug-testing regime at all our events since 2002 and our adoption of the World Anti-Doping Agency Code in July of this year, and that idea of zero tolerance has to be the major message from this whole affair," he added.

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