 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Four Pakistan players including captain, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Kamran Akmal and Mohammed Yousuf, currently touring England have cleared their respective dope tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
WADA carried out the dope tests, after the third ODI as part of its new anti-doping policy in international cricket.
The four seniors cricketers were picked for the random dope tests but assistant manager, Shafqat Rana said all four had cleared the tests.
"It is a great sigh of relief for us that the players cleared the tests and now they can focus on the cricket itself," he said.
The dope tests were conducted at a time when the Pakistan team was already struggling with spot-fixing allegations against some of its players.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has suspended Test captain Salman Butt and pace bowlers, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif over the allegations.
After Pakistan won the third ODI at the Oval last week, the ICC said it was also investigating the match after getting creditable reports there had been spot fixing in the match.
The ICC statement triggered off an unusual outburst from Ijaz Butt who in a counter attack alleged the England players were involved in fixing and a winning team didn't fix matches.
His statement has soured relations between the two boards with England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Tuesday that Pakistan will no longer be allowed to use its grounds as neutral venues in future.