ISLAMABAD, Sept 1: Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif is yet to receive a fresh date for his appeal against a positive drug test for the banned substance nandronlone.

“It will be some time this month, but we have not yet been informed by the Indian Premier League,” Asif’s lawyer Shahid Karim said on Monday.

Asif faces a ban of up to two years after the B sample of a drug test taken on May 30 tested positive at the World Anti-Doping Agency’s laboratory in Switzerland.

But Shahid is optimistic of clearing Asif after a discrepancy was spotted between the two readings of the (urine) samples.

The B sample’s recorded 5.4mg of the steroid nandrolone, compared to 6.2mg found in the A sample of the test taken while the player was contesting the IPL Twenty20 tournament for the Delhi Daredevils.

Asif was due to appear before the appellate tribunal of the IPL on Aug. 30, however Shahid sought some clarifications from the IPL and asked to push back the date to mid-September.

“I had asked them for clarifications on some issues, but they have not yet replied,” Shahid said, without elaborating. “I hope the hearing will be held in this month and Asif will be cleared.”

The IPL drug tribunal comprises former India Test captain Sunil Gavaskar, Dr Ravi Bapat and lawyer Shirish Gupte.Asif has received the support of leading Pakistan doping expert Dr Danish Zaheer, who is also the president of Sports Medicine Association of Pakistan.

Zaheer has said that athletes have been given the benefit of doubt in the past due discrepancies in the concentrations of prohibited steroids found in two drug samples.

In a separate inquiry, the Pakistan Cricket Board has completed its own inquiry into Asif’s drug case, but the final decision on his future can only be taken by the yet-to-be-appointed new chairman of the board.

Asif was detained for 19 days in Dubai after authorities allegedly found a substance containing opium in his wallet as he travelled through Dubai’s international airport on his way home from playing in the IPL.

The new chairman of the PCB is expected to be named after the presidential elections on Sept 6.—AP