IPL to reveal tainted player's name today

DOPE SHOCK: Shoaib and Asif weren't allowed to play in the 2006 Champions Trophy after testing positive for drugs.

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• It's official: Asif tested positive for doping
• Dope shock for IPL, one player tests positive
• WADA blames BCCI for prematurely naming Asif

Keywords: Shane Warne, Shoaib Akhtar

New Delhi: Drugs and cricket have gone hand in hand for some time now. While earlier, it was all recreational drugs, the focus has now shifted to performance enhancing drugs which carry an immediate ban.

The latest doping controversy hit the cricket world after one player tested positive for drugs during the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) officials had taken random samples during the tournament.

IPL chairman and commisoner Lalit Modi has confirmed that one player did indeed fail the test. While Modi declined to name the player, he did say that the name of the player will be revealed on Monday.

"One of the Swiss companies which conducted the test has confirmed it that a player has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. We don't know who the player is yet. His name will be confirmed only after we get the data from the Swiss laboratory," Modi said.

"There is no WADA approved laboratory in India that's why it's taken that long for the result to come out," he added.

Speculation is ride that the player is Pakistan pacer Mohammed Asif, who has been linked with performance enhancing drugs in the past

In fact he was detained in Dubai - on his way back to Pakistan after playing for the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL - for carrying a small amount of a undisclosed banned substance. He spent over two weeks in jail and finally walked free after the case was dropped.

But his troubles are not over for even though the Pakistan Cricket Board has denied any knowledge of the matter, it has appointed a committee to investigate the matter.

Meanwhile, CNN-IBN's sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board have said that this was an internal matter of the IPL and the BCCI.

"Right now we are not in the picture at all. Because this positive test is purely an internal matter of the IPL and the Indian Cricket Board. And so far we have not been told by anyone that any of our player's might be involved," a source at the PCB said.

Fourteen players were tested in all, in the medical examination that got underway one month after the IPL began.

The ICC says it's closely monitoring the situation to ensure correct action is taken. ICC issued a statement saying it was the responsibility of BCCI to deal with the situation in a fair and timely manner.

Spin Doctors & The Fast and Furious

Shane Warne is one of the greatest to have played the game but his off the field exploits were equally great. His luck ran out in 2003 just before the Cricket World Cup.

Warne tested positve for a banned diuretic and was banned for 12 months. In typical Shane Warne style, he called himself a victim of 'anti-doping hysteria'.

Fast and furious - that's what Shoiab Akhtar is all about, but not always. A day before Pakistan's opening fixture in the 2006 Champions Trophy Shoaib and Mohammed Asif were sent back home after testing positive for Nandrolone.

The PCB banned Shoiab for two years and Asif for one year, but it was later overturned. However, the questions remained and both missed the 2007 Cricket World Cup.