Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan

And there I was naively thinking the Shoaib-Asif doping saga had reached its conclusion. This is now completely taking the shape of a typical Indian soap opera, which refuses to end, taking one dramatic turn after another.

This latest episode features an intense war of words between the ICC’s chief executive Malcolm Speed, and his Pakistani counterpart, the CEO of the PCB, Naseem Ashraf.

It all started when ICC announced they could target specific players for drugs testing at the World Cup, and Speed added, for good measure, that he thought the whole Shoaib-Asif affair was an “embarrassment” for the game.

Whilst I’m no Speed fan, I certainly see no reason for anyone to find these comments “unwarranted” or “irresponsible”, but since the drama had to have an unprecedented episode number 420, Naseem Ashraf has now been moaning about Speed’s remarks, alleging they were “inflammatory”!

Oh dear lord! If you’re wondering ‘what next’ sarcastically, please don’t, because there certainly is more. Ashraf has also criticised two players, which he refused to name, that he said had issued similarly “irresponsible” statements regarding the Shoaib-Asif case.

I assume he was referring to Hayden and Vaughan’s remarks, and while I can understand why all this will be peeving him off so much, given how seriously they disrupt his cover-up attempts, I certainly have no sympathy for him whatsoever.

In fact, I’d tend to very much agree with Mr. Speed. It doesn’t put any sport in a good light if its players keep testing positive for drugs, and then get banned one-day and acquitted the next. And then, as in this case, keeping run away from more tests by claiming they’re injured. Its sends out a very bad message if anything.

Just take the example of the Olympics for instance, the number of athletes whose medals are taken away afterwards seem to keep increasingly with every successive tournament, one friend jokingly says it’s almost as if the new Olympic motto was ‘may the best chemist’ win.

No one can deny this trend hasn’t tarnished the value of the event to a great extent, and cricket’s case is no different. So I’m not sure what Naseem is going on about. Speed is perfectly entitled to his opinion, especially in this case, when he’s so obviously right.

Ashraf’s argument that the case is subjudice is completely irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that the PCB have gone out of their way to try and get Shoaib and Asif saved from the consequences of their failed test results, if they took any drugs knowingly or not, is again, completely irrelevant.

His complains hence, will fall on deaf ears, as they rightly should. In fact, short of their complains being heard, they might have some serious explaining and convincing to do, because The Guardian is now reporting that the ICC has demanded to see the ‘medical evidence’ of injuries to Akhtar and Asif before it allows Pakistan to call up replacements for them.

Perfect, now we can be rest assured this will drag on right up to our very first game and an episode 500 might be on the horizon. It might not be as easy for the PCB to get the replacement clearance for Sami and Arafat, as it was for Azhar Mahmood, especially given both Bob and Inzi were out saying only day before yesterday that the two’s injuries were not serious but given how toothless the ICC are themselves, I’m sure the PCB will rally around to eventually get clearance for them too.

If we had used our brains before and banned both appropriately in the first place, this would have never happened. I also disagree with Allan Border, who seems quite willing to give Shoaib and Asif the benefit of the doubt, saying the decision to pull them out of the World Cup was “sad but for the best”.

But how could it be for the best when it sets such a horrible precedent? Take drugs, get banned, get acquitted by a Mickey Mouse tribunal and then chose not to give any further test by pretending to be injured! What a perfect message this sends out to other players!

And then all these brainless organisations keep telling us they’re committed to keeping the sport drugs free. They’re all powerless, I tell you. The PCB, the ICC, the WADA, every one. The PCB, the less said about them the better, Speed’s ICC too have only talked thus far, I’m amazed that not even all test countries are signatories to WADA’s anti-doping petition (or whatever its called), and the WADA too, has so far, dished up more talk and not enough action.

Its no secret how little they have done to spread awareness about doping and related issues in this part of the world, and all the legal bla bla about this being PCB’s internal matter not withstanding, it remains a fact that they could not stop in time, two players who tested positive for banned drugs, from playing.

They still have that case against the appellate tribunal ruling in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, so at least there’s some chance these two will be handed some level of punishment in time, but over all, it’s a horrible situation, that everyone is responsible for at some level or the other. And they should all be ashamed of themselves.

This article at Cricket Bloggers of Pakistan has been composed by Zainub Razvi.

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