CAPE TOWN, March 2: Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif escaped an International Cricket Council drugs test when they were not selected for the Cricket World Cup, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said on Friday.

The players were withdrawn from the Pakistan team a day after Speed issued a statement that target testing would be done at the World Cup, naming the two bowlers. According to the Pakistan Cricket Board, the players were withdrawn because of injuries.

Commenting after an ICC board meeting, Speed said: “If they had been selected the intention was that those players would have been target tested.

“The fact that they weren't selected means that they won't be tested. The target testing will continue but it will involve other players.”

Speed said he did not wish to ‘telegraph punches’ by indicating how many or which players would be targeted in addition to the ICC's normal random testing for banned substances.

Asked whether Shoaib and Asif would be required to undergo tests before playing further international cricket, Speed said the ICC did not have the power to test players outside of ICC events.

“The next ICC event (after the World Cup) is the Twenty20 world championships in South Africa in September and I can't speculate on that.”

Both players tested positive for nandrolone in tests done in Pakistan before the ICC Champions Trophy last year.

They were withdrawn from the Pakistan team for the tournament. Shoaib was suspended for two years and Asif for one but the bans were overturned by an internal tribunal. Both played in a recent series in South Africa.

While Pakistan's other World Cup players were undergoing drugs tests, Shoaib and Asif were in London, reportedly receiving treatment for injuries.

But there was speculation that they were avoiding the drugs tests because of the possibility that traces of nandrolone would still be detected.

Speed said: “Earlier in the week we announced that ICC would target test at the World Cup. This is the first time we will have done that. We'll go ahead and do that in any event.

“In terms of injuries to players, there are a lot of players who are injured and who are going to miss the World Cup. It is always disappointing to see players who are injured missing out on an event such as the World Cup.”

Speed said there were no current plans to broaden the scope of ICC dope testing but he said all member countries of the ICC were required to be compliant with the code of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) within four years. The ICC joined WADA last year.

“We are still in the first year so we are working with the members to ensure that they have codes in place,” said Speed. “One of the issues we had with the Pakistan board was that it had adopted the code but wasn't WADA-compliant.”