Steroids won146;t help

The curious circumstances of the substance test on new-ball bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif could draw Pakistani cricket deeper into what has become its default crisis mode. On the findings of a Pakistan Cricket Board test on the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in progress in India, the two men have been ordered back home to Pakistan. It will be argued that, had the check been better timed and handled, Pakistan could have been spared the humiliation of having two of its players 8212; one of them contemporary cricket8217;s greatest stars 8212; charged with illegal use of anabolic steroids. In the event, however, the authorities have done the right thing by withdrawing them from the competition and sparing them mandatory tests the ICC would have had them undergo.

Pakistan cricket needs a point from which to start reclaiming reason. It comes to this doping controversy deeply divided and ridden by suspicion and intrigue. The Darrell Hair-ball-tampering episode took away the old band of men who ruled national cricket, and the manner of disclosure in the Akhtar-Asif case will be seen as a conspiracy by the new team. Somehow they have to steel themselves away from name-calling. Cricket anywhere needs an administration that is in command. It is time for the new dispensation to forget the circumstances of its induction and take proper charge. A clean-up and reorganisation cannot be postponed any longer.

Yet, one cannot but regret Akhtar8217;s involvement, especially if a second test confirms substance abuse. Ever since he burst into international cricket, kicking off flamboyantly from the sightscreen, steaming in at the batsman with everything he had to give, he has been one of the characters who8217;s kept the spectator interested. Interested also, alas, for niggling doubt that this sustained hyper-energy had something to do with steroids. Pakistan cricket has let down this great performer by failing to get him apt guidance. Given the raw talent that floats in that country, it would be a pity if lessons were not learnt from this episode.