Well what a surprise
Pakistani pace bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif have been acquitted on appeal to their drugs ban.
That they tested positive to prohibited substances is not the issue. They have got off on a technicality, and a shaky one at that. In its wisdom, the appeals committee (by a 2-1 majority) have decided the anti-doping regulations of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hold more weight than those of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The PCB anti-doping regulations allow a defence of "exceptional circumstances" which includes the situation where a "player held an honest and reasonable belief in a state of facts which, if they existed, would mean that the player did not commit a doping offence".
So in plain English, under the PCB anti-doping regulations, if you can prove that you honestly did not know you were breaking the law, you can get off - even if you did actually break the law.
What a crock of shit. In most justice systems in the word, ignorance of the law is no defence. Whether Shoaib and Asif are drug cheats or innocently caught up in the sporting world's anti-drug crusade is beside the point. Whether the appeals committee were feverishly looking for any loophole to get their star players acquitted or honestly believe in their judgement is also beside the point.
Apart from ignorance is no defence, what IS the point is the ICC are about to be put in a very uncomfortable position with the PCB (no doubt with support from their subcontinental friends) basically giving them the bird (our anti-doping regs hold sway more than yours, dear Papa), and I suspect on the other hand the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will soon be telling the ICC this is definitely not on and do something about it.
This saga has a long way to go yet. If there is one sporting organisation in the world you do not piss off, it is WADA. And the Asian bloc that control international cricket are about to find that out (and also note cricket is not exactly in WADA's good books after giving Warne only a one-year ban; it should have been two).
If the ICC don't do anything about this (and the cynic in me suggests they won't), I predict WADA will take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport - and there they will find out that:
(a) regulations of an international sporting federation hold more clout than those of a member federation, and
(b) ignorance is no defence.
To borrow a line from a reader - **grabs some popcorn**
That they tested positive to prohibited substances is not the issue. They have got off on a technicality, and a shaky one at that. In its wisdom, the appeals committee (by a 2-1 majority) have decided the anti-doping regulations of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hold more weight than those of the International Cricket Council (ICC). The PCB anti-doping regulations allow a defence of "exceptional circumstances" which includes the situation where a "player held an honest and reasonable belief in a state of facts which, if they existed, would mean that the player did not commit a doping offence".
So in plain English, under the PCB anti-doping regulations, if you can prove that you honestly did not know you were breaking the law, you can get off - even if you did actually break the law.
What a crock of shit. In most justice systems in the word, ignorance of the law is no defence. Whether Shoaib and Asif are drug cheats or innocently caught up in the sporting world's anti-drug crusade is beside the point. Whether the appeals committee were feverishly looking for any loophole to get their star players acquitted or honestly believe in their judgement is also beside the point.
Apart from ignorance is no defence, what IS the point is the ICC are about to be put in a very uncomfortable position with the PCB (no doubt with support from their subcontinental friends) basically giving them the bird (our anti-doping regs hold sway more than yours, dear Papa), and I suspect on the other hand the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will soon be telling the ICC this is definitely not on and do something about it.
This saga has a long way to go yet. If there is one sporting organisation in the world you do not piss off, it is WADA. And the Asian bloc that control international cricket are about to find that out (and also note cricket is not exactly in WADA's good books after giving Warne only a one-year ban; it should have been two).
If the ICC don't do anything about this (and the cynic in me suggests they won't), I predict WADA will take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport - and there they will find out that:
(a) regulations of an international sporting federation hold more clout than those of a member federation, and
(b) ignorance is no defence.
To borrow a line from a reader - **grabs some popcorn**
Labels: cricket
posted by Rob Crawford at 7:51 AM
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