The Hindu : Sport : Mohammad Asif tests positive; uncertainty looms over ban

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Mohammad Asif tests positive; uncertainty looms over ban

Special Correspondent

If the charge is confirmed the matter would be heard by a three-member panel
The ICC will be closely monitoring the situation

NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed that the player who tested positive for a banned drug in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif who played for Delhi Daredevils.

The BCCI stated in a release on Monday that the IPL Commissioner, Lalit Modi, had confirmed that the player who failed the dope test was Asif. It was found that the Pakistani speedster had not applied for a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) that could have allowed him to use a prohibited substance. IPL did not disclose the drug in question.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the player and his team (Delhi Daredevils) were being informed about the doping violation. Asif will have the right to seek a ‘B’ sample test, a mandatory offer made to an athlete charged with a violation, and the right to be present when that sample is tested. (‘B’ sample is part of the ‘A’ sample but in a different bottle).

Two-year suspension?

In case the doping violation charge is confirmed the matter would be heard by a three-member panel comprising Dr. Ravi Bapat, former Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Sunil Gavaskar and Shirish Gupte, a leading lawyer. Asif faces a two-year suspension, at least from the IPL.

Even though this would be his second positive test, taking the 2006 infraction into consideration (second violation attracts life ban), the previous offence will not count for Asif since he, along with Shoaib Akhtar, was exonerated by an appeals panel of the PCB after another committee found the players ‘guilty’ of a doping offence in out-of-competition tests done prior to the Champions Trophy in India. Both were charged with steroids violations then, but the PCB let them off.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), embarrassed by the turn of events, but unable to intervene because of lack of teeth in its own anti-doping rules, allowed the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to bring forward an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the PCB ruling.

Eventually CAS refused to entertain the WADA appeal, ruling that the PCB code did not have a ‘right of appeal’ clause favouring WADA. The ICC has claimed its right of appeal in the latest case.

“The ICC is proud of its status as a WADA signatory and will be closely monitoring the situation to ensure the correct action is taken by the BCCI. The ICC retains a right of appeal if any penalty that may be imposed is inconsistent with the WADA Code.”

Though the ICC anti-doping code is still largely confined to ICC events, the ICC had amended its rules in July 2007 to claim a ‘right of appeal’ in case it found member nations were not implementing the rules correctly in the fight against doping.

The ICC and its member units are expected to be WADA-compliant by 2009.

All eyes on PCB

Much will depend on how the PCB treats this second case involving Asif even as it is yet to pronounce its decision on the pace bowler being detained in Dubai after he was found to be in possession of a contraband drug.

The IPL rules (as well as ICC and WADA rules) stipulate a two-year suspension for a doping offence, barring that for drugs coming under ‘specified substances’ in which case an athlete will have the chance to prove that he did not take a substance in order to enhance performance and the use was quite accidental. If such a plea is accepted a player can be let off with just a warning or a one-year ban.

The first dope ‘positive’ in the inaugural edition of the IPL triggered quite a speculation on Sunday night, leading to several inaccurate statements by various authorities.

To put the record straight, the dope-testing procedures in the IPL were carried out by IDTM, a Stockholm-based independent company, and not WADA, as had been claimed time and again — a fact endorsed for the first time by IPL in a release on Monday — and the tests were done at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland.

IPL’s authority will be limited to IPL matches while its parent body, the BCCI, does not have an anti-doping code. The ICC expects the BCCI to take suitable action in the present case. Beyond forwarding the IPL findings to the PCB, it is difficult to understand what role the BCCI can play unless IPL itself violates laid down rules.

The PCB rules, yet unknown to the large majority of the cricketing world, and the ICC’s amended rules should play a crucial part in determining the fate of Asif. WADA, having failed once to intervene, could be just keeping a watch.

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