Terming as “unwarranted” Malcolm Speed’s remarks on dope-tainted pacers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, the Pakistan Cricket Board has shot off a strongly-worded letter to the ICC, saying such comments could “influence opinion” on the issue.“We have sent a protest letter to the ICC president (Percy Sonn) as we feel that some of the remarks made by Speed on Akhtar and Asif were unwarranted and an attempt to influence opinion on the doping issue,” PCB chairman Dr Naseem Ashraf said today.Speed, while talking about the ICC’s policy of targeted dope tests in the forthcoming World Cup, had called the whole affair of Akhtar and Asif continuing to play after having tested positive for a banned steroid as an “embarrassment” for the sport. Speed’s statement also contained a veiled threat that the pace duo, if sent to the West Indies for the World Cup, would be dope tested immediately. “A case is pending in the Court of Arbitration for Sports between us and the World Anti-Doping Agency on the Akhtar and Asif affair. Speed’s remarks can influence its outcome,” a peeved Ashraf said.“I am surprised at the timing of the statement and the remarks on Pakistan and its players because we are just one of four countries who are voluntarily carrying out dope tests on our players. We have done even before the World Cup. Our commitment to the anti-doping policy of the ICC is firm,” he said. Sources said, in the protest letter, the PCB had asked Sonn to speak to Speed and caution him against giving statements on the doping issue in future. Another PCB official said Speed’s statement did not play a role in dropping Akhtar and Asif from the World Cup squad and insisted that they were unfit. But sources said Speed’s statement had put the PCB on the defensive. Akhtar and Asif tested positive for a banned substance nandrolone last October in out-of-competition tests conducted by the board. They were banned for two and one years respectively by a drugs inquiry panel of PCB but then exonerated in December despite admitting to have taken the substance.WADA has challenged their exoneration in the CAS and the case is due to be heard soon after a review panel rules on whether the CAS has the jurisdiction to judge on the case as Pakistan claim the dope tests of the two players were not held in any ICC competition and was an internal matter of PCB.
