Asif wants hearing to be pushed back

Mohammad Asif has asked that his preliminary hearing for testing positive for nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid, to be pushed back from August 30, the scheduled date, to the middle of September. Asif will not be able to reach India to appear before a tribunal because there are "certain formalities" to be completed, according to his lawyer Shahid Karim.

"We have been given a tentative date by IPL. They want us to come to India on August 30 but I have replied to them that such a date wasn't possible," Karim told PTI. "There are certain formalities to be completed before going to India to appear before the tribunal. They should fix the date by middle of September."

Asif, who played for Delhi Daredevils, had tested positive during the Indian Premier League and had asked for his B sample to be analysed. The B sample, which was tested in Switzerland, also showed traces of nandrolone but the quantities of the substance varied in the two samples. The second sample had a nandrolone concentration of 5.4 nanograms per millilitre of urine while the first had 6.2 nanograms.

"There was a major difference in the two results," Karim said. "There was a deviation, which has certain connotations, which we can't divulge now but will do in due course of time. The report [from Switzerland] has just come in and we are analysing it. The expert Dr. Graham is going through the report."

Asif was suspended by the PCB from all forms of the game pending the result of the IPL inquiry. Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, had previously told Cricinfo that if Asif's B sample also tested positive, the matter would be taken up by the IPL's drugs tribunal, comprising Sunil Gavaskar, Dr Ravi Bapat (ex-vice chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences) and lawyer Shirish Gupte. The tribunal will take a decision in accordance with the ICC's anti-doping code, which the IPL had adopted.

Asif previously tested positive for nandrolone just before the 2006 Champions Trophy in India. Though he was banned for one year by a PCB tribunal, the punishment was overturned a month later on appeal.