Asif the arse

Most of you have probably heard that Mohammed Asif - who had already escaped bans despite testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2006 and after being found with opium in Dubai - also tested positive for drugs during the IPL. However, unlike in 2008 and earlier this year the PCB is not going to defend their man. In fact, they have already suspended him and said that he is going to have to fight the charges alone.

Pakistani cricket writer Kamran Abbasi can speak with much more authority than me on the subject of Pakistani cricketers and drugs, so go and read what he has to say. When you finish his blog, you might notice this response in the comments:

One day after PCB decided that it won't allow its players to take part in the next IPL season if it coincides with Australia's rescheduled visit to the country next year, IPL released Asif's positive results. Not to mention that he was previously found guilty in India. And, also at Dubai Airport where 95% of the working staff is Indian!

Is it just coincidence? Every time when issue like this comes, India is involved in it. What if the Indian mixed something in his food there, and he even did not know it?

We have seen the involvement of Indian secret service agents in much complicated cases to damage the cause and respect of Pakistan. It must be the simplest one for them.

It would be better for Pakistani players traveling to India in future, get tested at home first before departure, to compare the results and to make sure that indeed they are dirty or is it someone else?

If only that were true. Conspiracies are so much more interesting than the mundane truth that a stupid young man thought he could get away with taking drugs.

Conspiracy theorists on the other side might soon be formulating their own theories. A drugs expert (see the side bar) has said that by naming Asif the IPL has breached WADA disclosure guidelines and that this breach of protocol could help Asif win an appeal against any sanction imposed.