LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has provisionally suspended Test opener Ahmed Shehzad besides issuing him a notice of charge in the doping case.

The PCB has also asked him to send his reply by July 18 — either he wants to ask for the ‘B’ sample test and also to submit his reply by July 27 to the charges levelled in the notice of charge.

The notice of charge was handed over to Shehzad late on Tuesday.

“Under the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Anti-Doping Rules, the PCB conducted in-competition dope testing through an independent collecting agency during the 2018 Pakistan Cup held in Faisalabad. Among others, the urine sample of Ahmed Shehzad was collected on May 3, 2018,” a PCB press release issued on Wednesday said.

“The sample was forwarded to a WADA-accredited laboratory for analysis which, through its analytical report, gave an adverse analytical finding for the presence of a prohibited substance. The PCB received the analytical report on June 11, 2018.

“On June 12, 2018, the PCB requested Anti-Doping Agency of Pakistan to constitute an independent review board and give their finding on whether a valid Therapeutic Use Exemption existed and/or whether there had been a departure from the international standards of testing,” the PCB states.

“This required the Review Panel to examine the lab pack and they thus wrote to the WADA-accredited laboratory requesting the same. The laboratory submitted the lab pack to the Review Panel earlier this week.

“Upon receipt of the findings from the Review Board, the PCB has issued and handed over a Notice of Charge to Ahmed Shehzad.

“He has been given till July 18, 2018 to advise whether he wishes to have his ‘B’ Sample tested and till July 27, 2018 to respond to the charges leveled in the Notice of Charge. The PCB has also provisionally suspended Shehzad pending the outcome of the charges,” added the PCB press release.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2018