February 10, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 21, 1428

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KARACHI, Feb 9: Pakistan's decision to drug-test their entire World Cup squad could end in life bans for Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, who recently won doping reprieves, an expert warned on Friday.

Dr Danish Zaheer, vice president of the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine, said the two bowlers could still have banned substances in their systems after testing positive in October.

“To me it is not the good timing for Shoaib and Asif to have re-tests because if they test positive again, which is likely to happen, then on a second offence they face life bans,” Zaheer said.

Shoaib and Asif are both likely inclusions when Pakistan's squad is announced on Tuesday, despite testing positive for banned steroid nandrolone in internal tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Shoaib was banned for two years and Asif for one year by an Anti-Doping Commission in November.

But a month later, both were controversially reinstated by an appellate committee, prompting the World Anti-Doping Agency to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The CAS, based in Switzerland, is unlikly to hear the case before April.

Zaheer said Pakistan should have dealt the WADA appeal before the blanket re-testing, which was announced this week.

“The PCB and the athletes should have settled the CAS issue first which would have allowed them to have a suitable line of action in order to avoid double penalty or life ban,” said Zaheer.

Zaheer said Shoaib and Asif should keep away from the World Cup if they want to prolong their careers.

“The two players must get maximum time away from the competition in order to avoid any testing until the World Cup. Their chances of having over limit of banned substance would be much lower then, rather than if PCB decides to test them now.”

Pakistan have been given permission by the International Cricket Council to replace any World Cup squad members who test positive.—AFP