Cricket: Pakistan bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif are free to play in next year's World Cup, after convincing an appeals committee there were 'exceptional circumstances' explaining their positive nandrolone tests.
A three-member committee in Karachi accepted the pair's defence that they were not advised on taking vitamin supplements which may have led to the banned steroid showing up in their urine samples.
Shoaib (31) was last month banned from cricket for two years and 23-year-old Asif for 12 months following the failed tests in the build-up to the Champions Trophy.
The players refused to accept the decisions, however, claiming they never knowingly used any banned substances - and the Pakistan Cricket Board agreed with the duo and overturned the bans.
Asif is now keen to return to the international set-up as soon as possible.
He said: "I have been playing club cricket to keep myself fit. It is up to the selectors to decide when they want to call me up. I will start playing domestic cricket as soon as possible.
"I spent sleepless nights after the incident. But I didn't give up hope, and my mother and the rest of my family were a big source of strength for me. Some PCB members also helped me a lot.
"I have no problems with giving another test, because I have never used performance-enhancing substances in my life and I still don't know what happened in the Champions Trophy."
The decision was announced by appeals committee chairperson Fakhruddin Ibrahim. PA