Pakistan relaunch Asif drugs probe

Mohammad Asif faces a PCB inquiry as well as an IPL hearing later this month

The Pakistan Cricket Board has ordered a fresh enquiry into fast bowler Mohammad Asif's detention in Dubai.

The new regime of the PCB has come under severe pressure to penalise the fast bowler after documents pertaining to his 19-day detention in Dubai were made public by United Arab Emirates officials last week.

Asif was detained after 0.24 grams of opium were found in his possession and, during interrogation, confessed to using the substance, although he said he believed it was a remedy given to him by a traditional Islamic healer.

No charges were pressed against Asif and he was deported without trial.

The PCB under former chief Nasim Ashraf conducted their own inquiry into the matter but Ashraf resigned without taking a decision on the findings of the probe.

The present set-up - led by chairman Ijaz Butt - had refused to take action against the 26-year-old fast bowler.

However, with Pakistan politicians and the International Cricket Council demanding a probe, the PCB has moved into action.

It has now appointed a three-member team comprising former Test player and director of human resources Wasim Bari, PCB medical expert Dr Sohail Saleem and Asif Sohail, a member of the PCB's media department.

"The committee will start work immediately," a PCB spokesman said. "No time frame has been given to them to complete their findings.”

Asif has already been suspended from all forms of cricket by the PCB for failing a drugs test during the Indian Premier League.

He is scheduled to appear before the IPL drugs panel for a hearing in London on January 24.