Shoaib relieved over dismissal of doping case

Lahore : Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has expressed relief over news that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed a case filed against him and fellow team-mate Mohammad Asif by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

"It’s good to be back in cricket and I wish I could have played those one-dayers that we couldn’t play in Scotland due to rain, but it was great to be back in the side," the Daily Times quoted him, as saying.

Shoaib, however, took a swipe at cricket officials back home for their "stupid and pathetically wrong handling" of the doping case.

"The way the doping case was handled was stupid and pathetically wrong. They could have saved their country’s respect and a big disaster because two of us lost our fitness and never ended up going to the World Cup," he added.

Shoaib (31) and Asif were banned for two and one-year respectively after allegedly testing positive for the banned steroid Nandrolone last September.

However, an appeals committee formed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) cleared them of doping charges later.

But CAS, based in Switzerland, ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to deal with the matter and that the PCB does not provide a right of appeal to the international sports court. (ANI)