'Asif victim of innocence'

Darryn Lifson, Pakistan physiotherapist, has said Mohammad Asif was naive in taking dietary supplements without realising their possible consequences. "I would say Asif was a victim of innocence. When he injured his elbow he took an injection for that, otherwise he was taking a powder which I was not aware of. When I came to know about it, I stopped him," Lifson said.

Asif had told a doping tribunal last month that while in England with the Pakistan team in June 2006, he was given an injection for his elbow injury which did not work. He had received two more injections during his stay. After his return, he had been using a nutritional supplement called Promax-50, he told the tribunal.

Asif was banned for one year and Shoaib Akhtar for two years after internally-conducted tests revealed both had excessive limits of banned steroid Nandrolone in their urine samples.

The tribunal in its verdict had justified the lesser ban on Asif as he had little knowledge of doping and was never tested before, unlike Akhtar who had been tested twice previously.

Lifson described Asif as serious and honest player. "Asif takes training very seriously and is a fantastic guy to work with, honest, hard-working and a very good man," Lifson said.

Lifson was shocked when he got the news of Asif testing positive. "I was shocked and my first opinion was that there must be something wrong with the testing program. It was my opinion that there was something going on that Asif wasn't aware of, that he was given some supplement that I was not aware and may have given possible positive test."