Monday, 16 October 2006

Drugs in cricket

Until now, cricket has appeared blessedly free of performance enhancing drugs. That all seems set to change thanks to this tiny little article. Pakistan's strike bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif, have been sent home before bowling a ball in the Champions Trophy "after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs following an internal Pakistan Cricket Board drugs test.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Im a little irked by this. Im the first to say that performance enhancing drugs have no place in sport. No arguement there. But there seems to be some kind of crazed paranoia regarding positive tests. And the media play no small part in lending an air of controversy everytime something like this happens.
I still remember Shane Warnes one year ban for taking a DIET SUPLEMENT given to him by his mother. Im not implying there should be no punishment. But to force one of the greats (as a player anyway) out of the game for that long over something quite trivial is harsh and pathetic and smacks of hot headed 'justice'.

Hopefully Shoaib gets a fair hearing on this one. Im a fan of his mostly on the fact hes a true original in the game and brings an excitement factor that is sometimes sorely missed

Got angry hearing Ian Smiths comments on the radio. Hes always so quick to bag anyone who doesnt tow the line. If you dont fit into Smithy's mold of how a player should be then he turns against you. Sounds like he just had a personality problem with Akhtar.

If he willingly took the substances then hand out a due punishment. But the facts need to be heard first. Not everything is always black and white.