May 18, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 01, 1428

DUBAI, May 17: No player tested positive for drugs at the recently staged World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Thursday. During the Caribbean tournament that spanned March and April, 15 of the tournament’s 51 matches, including both semi-finals and the final, plus two warm-up matches, were randomly selected for testing.

There was, however, a drugs controversy before the tournament began when Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were both removed from their country’s squad.

Both players tested positive for nandrolone in tests done in Pakistan before the ICC Champions Trophy, held in India 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 They were withdrawn from the Pakistan team for the tournament.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 and they played for the national side in South Africa before the World Cup.

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) insisted they'd missed the World Cup because of injuries.

At the World Cup, two players from each side were tested in the 17 games under review, giving a total of 68 samples.

Last year, the ICC signed up to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

In a statement issued from its Dubai headquarters, the ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed, said: “The fact that all drug tests at the ICC Cricket World Cup proved negative is a great result for the game. But that does not mean the ICC, or any of our members, can afford to be complacent in this area.

“It is encouraging that five of our full members - Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa - are testing their players outside of ICC events and the West Indies is set to join that list in the near future.

“We should never forget that cricketers are role models and they need to be sending out the right messages to the public, and that is one of the reasons why we must continue to have a zero tolerance on the use of performance-enhancing drugs,” Speed added.—AFP