Monday, October 16, 2006

Well, this has been expected

According to news just breaking in on cricinfo.com,
Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have both been recalled to Pakistan and will miss the Champions Trophy after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs following an internal Pakistan Cricket Board drugs test. The news comes on the back of an autumn of turbulence for Pakistan cricket, taking in the Oval fiasco, the captaincy saga and the replacement of the head of the board and severely dents Pakistan's chances in the tournament, due to begin tomorrow with a match against Sri Lanka.
This was long due in cricket and had to happen one-day or the other. For too long have the international cricketers escaped the dope tests that have become mandatory in almost all the international sporting events. But with ICC trying hard to make cricket a global game, this wasn't too far away from becoming a regular feature in international cricket. In fact, ICC has done a trail run kinda sorts at the last World Cup in SA by testing players randomly and for the first time they made it official at this time's Champions Trophy.

And the funny thing is that, obviously not so for the millions of Pakistani supporters, the first victims of this whole process were top players from Pakistan! What a nightmare is this year turning to them after such a wonderful start to the season! And the wreck continues......i don't how they are gonna pull themselves out of this rut.

And i won't be surprised if some other players from the participating countries too fall victim of this, 'cause this has been a grey area for cricket for a long time now and many players in the past have escaped the dope test scrutiny.

This whole thing might be a bit painful for cricket lovers around the world, but I'm certain that this will help cricket in the long term.

2 comments:

Sara's Varolo Village said...

I will never understand this. Do athletes really think that with all of the testing going on that they won't get caught and ruin themselves. At the very least, the immense health risks associated with these drugs are well known.

Cricket never seemed like the type of game you would really need steroids to play, but I've only ever watched one game in my life and it was played by old people.

Well written post!
Sara

Sri Harsha said...

Yeah, i agree.

It also surprises me every time i hear about some athlete getting caught doping. Like the last time when the Tour de France winner Floyd Landis got caught for doping.

As far as cricket is concerned, may be these players tried the drugs out thinking that they might heal their injuries faster. Not that i support them doing so.

Thanks Sara for dropping by.