IPL rejects PCB request over Mohammad Asif Ban

he Indian Premier League (IPL) today rejected the request of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to advance the date of commencement of the one-year ban imposed on pacer Mohammad Asif for returning a positive dope test from September 23 to July 15, 2008.

"We have received a request from the PCB to prepone the ban on Asif from September 23 to July 15, 2008. We cannot do so. The ban was imposed by the IPL Drug Tribunal comprising Sunil Gavaskar, Dr Ravi Bapat and Shirish Gupte," said IPL Chairman Lalit Modi at a media conference here.

Modi explained that Asif had the option to go in for an appeal against the ban, imposed for one year by the IPL Tribunal for testing positive for banned drug Nandrolone in the first season of the League, but chose not to do so.

"I do not know why the ban was imposed for one year. He could have appealed against it and then the Appeals Tribunal would have looked into it. He did not do so. The ban stays from September 23, 2008," he said.

Modi said he presumed that the commencement of the ban was fixed from September 23 as Asif had asked for his 'B' sample too to be tested for the banned drug and it was done only in September. PTI