Pakistan have recalled its speedster duo Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif from the Champions Trophy after they were tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. The country's cricket board said allrounder Yasir Arafat and left-arm spinner Abdul Rahman had been finalised as replacements.
In the latest controversy to engulf Pakistani cricket, the team's best new ball pairing face bans of up to two years each for allegedly using the performance-enhancing drug. Akhtar and Asif arrived in Lahore late on Monday but gave no statement to reporters at the airport.
Pakistan prepared to face Sri Lanka in their opening Champions Trophy match in Jaipur, India, on Tuesday without them. The 31-year-old Akhtar, who was looking forward to a comeback after a long injury layoff, protested his innocence and said he was "gutted" to miss the tournament.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Nasim Ashraf told a news conference that the board carried out tests on 25 players and that the two positive results had now been reconfirmed by a Malaysian laboratory.
Pakistan had suspended the two players with immediate effect and withdrawn them from the Champions Trophy, Ashraf added. "The players will return home on the first available flight," he said. Pakistan has no system for doping offences but will set up a tribunal to decide how to punish Akhtar and Asif if their test results are confirmed, Ashraf said.
"The International Cricket Council (ICC) has a ban of two years for the first offence but we'll go step by step, form a committee which will look into the evidence," Ashraf told reporters.
"We don't want to end the careers of Shoaib and Asif. We will do a complete investigation and then decide the matter."Pakistan deserved credit for immediately revealing the positive test results on two of its key players, the cricket chief said. "We did not cover it up... We don't care about losing or winning. We need to educate the players because this is very serious offence."
Stunned Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said he would "take responsibility" for tests. "What was my initial reaction? Disappointment," the English-born Woolmer told a press conference in Jaipur.
"I have never come across anything like this in my life.... The timing is not great, but if it's going to happen it happens." The steroid claims cap two months of controversy swirling around the squad. The chaos started in the fourth Test against England at the Oval in August, when captain Inzamamul Haq refused to take his team back on the field after it was accused of ball-tampering.
Inzamamul was cleared of that charge but was still handed a four-match ban for bringing the game into disrepute. His replacement Younis earlier this month refused to lead the side for the Champions Trophy, saying he did not want to be a "dummy" captain. Then-PCB chief Shahryar Khan quit the next day because of his decision. Khan's replacement Ashraf reinstated Younis as skipper.
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