IPL rejects request for change of Asif's ban period

The IPL drug tribunal has rejected the PCB's request to revise the ban imposed on Mohammad Asif. Last week, the Pakistan board had asked the IPL to move the start of the ban from September 2008 to last July. Asif was banned for one year recently by the IPL's drug tribunal for testing positive for nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid, during the tournament last year.

The Pakistan board had wanted the ban to be in effect from July 15 2008, the date the PCB had banned Asif, and not September 23 as decided by the IPL's drug tribunal. But Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, insisted the September date was taken into account because that was date the IPL passed the suspension order after Asif's second sample had tested positive.

"We cannot accept the PCB letter to reduce the ban. As far as we are concerned Asif asked for the B sample to be tested and from that date the ban was imposed," Modi said.

Asked if the IPL had the powers to tell the tribunal to reconsider the decision, Modi responded in the negative. "We as IPL do not have the discretion to change the decision of the tribunal." This means Asif has no chance of being part of Pakistan's tour of Sri Lanka, which begins in July.

Asif's doctor Michael Graham said the fast bowler should now wait for his ban to end so that he could resume his international career. "The timing of the appeal against the ban has lapsed and the chapter is now closed," Graham said. "It was an unintentional mistake and the tribunal should have given him the benefit of doubt. Now he must wait for the ban to end on September 23 so that he can resume his international career."