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| December 09, 2006 | Saturday | Ziqa'ad 17, 1427 |
WADA chief calls Pakistan doping decision ‘aberrational’
BRUSSELS, Dec 8: The World Anti-Doping Agency chief criticized the lifting of doping bans on two Pakistani cricketers by terming it “aberrational” and said individual federations had to play by international rules.
“It is certainly aberrational to have a national federation telling the international federation what rules it is going to apply in something like doping,” WADA chairman Dick Pound said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.
“This is typical of the reason why you need WADA. You have different rules applied in different cases,” Pound said.
A three-member appeals panel in Pakistan on Tuesday overturned doping bans on fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif.
A PCB tribunal on Nov. 1 had banned Shoaib for two years, and Asif for one, after they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf claimed that WADA and the Dubai-based International Cricket Council cannot overturn the panel's decision.
Pound said it was too early to say whether WADA would take the case to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it was discussing the matter with the ICC.
The appeals panel set aside the punishments because it said Shoaib and Asif had not been warned about dietary supplements blamed for their positive tests.
Pound has said that international athletes must be aware of the risks involved and a lack of knowledge was no excuse.
ICC president Percy Sonn said on Wednesday that the panel's decision highlighted “inconsistencies” in Pakistan cricket's anti-doping processes.
Sonn said all ICC member countries should align their anti-doping policies with WADA and ICC codes.—AP
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