KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone and are being sent home from the Champions' Trophy in India.

The bowlers' A and B samples both came up positive yesterday, and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Naseem Ashraf said his organisation was swiftly setting up an investigative unit to address the scandal.

Salim Altaf, the PCB's director of operations, said the board, as signatories to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) anti-doping policy, had carried out a routine test on 19 players at the end of last month.

Akhtar, 31, known as the "Rawalpindi Express" and the first man to officially clock a 100-mile-per-hour delivery during the last World Cup, and Asif, 23, now face possible disciplinary action at the hands of a PCB-instituted tribunal consisting of a former Test cricketer.

This is the biggest doping issue to hit cricket since Australia's star spinner, Shane Warne, was sent home before the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa and banned for one year for testing positive for a diuretic.

Akhtar and Asif have both protested their innocence, suggesting they never knowingly used any performance-enhancing drug.

"I cannot say much at this time about what has happened but I just want to assure everyone that I am innocent of doing anything I shouldn't have,"
Akhtar said.

"The president of Pakistan has asked me not to comment in any detail at this stage and I want to respect his wishes, so I will keep my message short.

"I have always played the game fair and I give 100 per cent and do not feel that I need to take drugs to help my bowling," he added.

A statement from his private doctor, Tauseef Razzaq, a reputed physiotherapist and sports medicine specialist, said the positive results probably stemmed from the medicines he had been taking to aid his recovery from injury. (AP/MK)

Please see also Pages 22 and 23.