NEW
DELHI:
Chairman Lalit Modi said that Indian Premier League will conduct a
random dope test on the players participating in the Twenty20 tournament. After
a report in the Nation, which claimed that Shoaib Akhtar was questioned about a
large number of syringes in his baggage prior to leaving for Mumbai earlier this
month at the Karachi airport, the IPL commissioner announced that the test will
be conducted in 2 to 3 days.
However, the Pakistan Cricket Board has
played down a report in a section of the media that fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar
was questioned about a large number of syringes in his baggage prior to leaving
for Mumbai earlier this month at the Karachi airport.
A report in
the
Nation
said that prior to boarding
the flight to Mumbai en route to Kolkata the custom officials had questioned
Shoaib on an inordinately large supply of syringes in his luggage-reportedly as
many as three dozen in number.
The fast bowler, who is playing for
Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders team in the Indian Premier League, told
the custom officials that he needed the syringes because he was a diabetic, the
report said.
The first time one has heard off the fast bowler
suffering from this ailment. When a senior official of the board was asked about
the incident, he said it was no big deal as the syringes were empty and
contained no substances.
Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer
also showed ignorance over the medical history of Shoaib saying he would have to
check up to find out if the fast bowler was a diabetic.
But he made
it clear that Shoaib had gone to India to play in the IPL and currently he was
under the preview of the IPL rules and regulations.
When reminded
about Shoaib's past record of having tested positive for a banned substance,
nandrolone in 2006 with team-mate Mohammad Asif, Naghmi said the IPL was
recognised by the International Cricket Council but it was not an ICC event.
"I don't thing it is a big deal. The syringes were empty and first
we have to confirm if the report has got all the facts right. There is no
question of the Pakistan Board contemplating any action against Shoaib for
this," he said.
Shoaib is playing in the IPL after the three-member
appellate tribunal, hearing his appeal against the five-year ban imposed on him,
suspended the ban for a month to allow him to play in the cash-rich Twenty20
competition.