Football
Reuters 17y

Cricket-Pakistan to conduct dope tests on Twenty20 players

KARACHI, July 14 - Pakistan's Cricket Board (PCB)
will conduct out-of-competition dope tests on the 30 players
they have named in their preliminary squad for the Twenty20
World Cup in South Africa in September.

A senior board official said on Saturday the dope tests
would be conducted soon as part of Pakistan's zero tolerance
policy against drugs in sports.

Pakistan faced a embarrassing drugs scandal last year when
their fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif failed
out-of-competition tests before the Champions Trophy in India in
October.

The two, who tested positive for nandrolone, were initially
banned but were later exonerated of all charges and had their
bans lifted by an appeals panel.

"We have decided to have dope tests on all 30 of our players
in the preliminary squad because we just want to avoid any more
incidents and also because we remain committed to the
International Cricket Council (ICC) strict anti-doping policy in
the sport," Zakir Khan, director of cricket operations told
Reuters.

Both Shoaib and Asif have been included in the Twenty20
preliminary squad.

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