Former Australian skipper Allan Border is relieved that dope-tainted pace duo of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are out of the World Cup, saying that the game has no place for drug offenders. “The bottom line here is there is no room for players who take (illegal) drugs in our game,” Border was quoted as saying in The Australian. “Players who have been selected from other teams for what is cricket’s biggest tournament are there performing to the best of their ability and on a level playing field,” the former Aussie captain said. “There has been a cloud hanging over both of them for a good while. It is to be hoped that they are truly injured and that it’s not a repeat of their previous (drug) problem,” he further commented.Border said he was ready to accept the PCB explanation for Shaoib and Asif’s ouster and hope that nothing else comes out later. “If it were to be true that it wasn’t an injury, and it turned out be something else, then it would be better for all concerned that they didn’t make the trip. “If it was revealed at some later stage they had taken an illegal substance, then the sport doesn’t need another black eye. I would feel genuinely sorry for both the two young blokes if that were not the case,” he added.
