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Jaipur: In what turned out to be a drama filled day at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here yesterday Pakistan's key fast bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, were sent home following a failed drugs test. The substance found was nandrolone.
But the added highlight of the day's proceedings was the sheer pandemonium that ensued during the press briefing as team manager Talat Ali made the formal announcement to the media.
Ali was reading out a statement on behalf of Salim Altaf, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Director Cricket Operations, from Lahore. But what was amazing is that even before the statement was read, the news had already leaked out. Many felt that it was deliberately done by a select group of PCB members.
Before Ali walked in to read the statement, the media coordinator of the Jaipur stadium, Anant Vyas, made it clear through an announcement that no questions could be asked to Ali, or to Pakistani captain Younis Khan, or coach Bob Woolmer regarding the incident.
Visibly upset at this, most media personnel began yelling at Vyas, demanding to know what right the International Cricket Council (ICC) had to dictate on their freedom of speech and right to information. According to Talat Ali's statement: "In accordance with the PCB's anti doping policy, the PCB had arranged to test 19 players prior to the Champions Trophy by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in Malaysia.
Akhtar and Asif have tested positive for nandrolone, which is a banned anabolic steroid. The PCB has thus decided to withdraw the two players. The players will return back home on the first available flight."
Soon after the statement was read, Ali was whisked away by the ICC officials.
Meanwhile, the news from the Pakistan camp is that Naveed-ul-Hassan could also be banned and that Pakistan has already presented a list of three players as replacements.
According to official information, batsman Yasir Arafat and left-arm spinner Abdul Rahman are the likely replacements.
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