Its Only Cricket

3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Filed under Cricket Controversies

First the Oval test ficaso, then Younis Khan rejecting Pakistan's captainship before accepting it back two days later and now positive drug testing for the fast bowlers - Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.

ICC had said around two months ago that they will be conducting drug test during the ICC Champions trophy - but not to every player. They will be selecting two players randomly from any two countries and take their samples.

This was nothing but a hint to every cricket playing nation that they check their players before sending them. BCCI announced that they will conduct their own drug testing on ever Indian cricketer - before the Champions trophy starts..

Now when Champions trophy has started, none of Indian cricketer has been reported which means that Indian team is free of an allegation that Pakistan isn't.

Pakistan did their own drug testing as well, and now today when Pakistan plays their first match in ICC Champions trophySha against Sri Lanka, Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar has been found guilty of consuming banned steroids..

And now they will be catching the first flight home. Here are few question that you may ask --

What is this Drug/steroid/dope

In any sport, the use of performace enhancing drugs are prohibited. These drugs don't do much when it comes to cricket as they are just capable to enhancing human body's strength..

But then, they are banned to be used for any sports person, which mainly happens during Olympic games where strength is more required. Nadrolone - the steroid Asif and Shoaib has been found guilty of using are used to "Promote muscle building, and enables athelets to recover from workout quickly"

This means that as both Shoaib and Asif were making a comeback from injuries, they had taken these banned drungs - and now have paid the price of shame. Very similar to what happened to Shane Warne just before 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.

Shane Warne's drug testing :-

This was the first time that dope testing were done in cricket and the very first and only guilty person found was Shane Warne of Australia. It must be noted that Shane Warne have had his problems with drugs and he packed his bags just two days before Australia's first match in 2003 World cup.

Shane Warne has never played ODI cricket after that, although his test career still moves on.

The replacements :-

After this Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif drug testing indicende, Pakistan had no choice but to replace them with Yasir Arafat and Abdur Rehman. The first one is a medium pace all rounder while the Abdur Rehman is a left arm spinner. Here's Pakistan's rest of the squad for ICC Champions trophy.

Dhoni's six, Ganga's "controvertial" catch and Lara's irritation..!!

Some Toronto memories, specially Injamam's batting in the spectators stands.

Darrell Hair wins Oval test for England..!!

Listen what Sourav Ganguly is saying.

Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif test positive.

Ricky Ponting must apologise to Mr. Sharad Powar.

Bhajji banned for calling Symonds a Monkey.

India v Australia, Sydney test match 2008 : in Pictures