Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif, who has been suspended indefinitely by the Pakistan Cricket Board after his IPL misdemeanour, might well have tested positive for a recreational drug rather than a performance-enhancing one, sources in the PCB said. Even recreational drugs such as opium and hashish come under the World Anti Doping Agency’s list of banned substances.

Asif had tested positive for Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing substance, just before the 2006 Champions Trophy in India, but his two-year ban was reduced after another test was carried out ahead of the World Twenty20 in South Africa.

The fast bowler has pleaded ignorance ever since the IPL test came out positive, saying he was sure he had been careful not to take any performance-enhancing substances, even by mistake. “It may not be an anabolic steroid that got him in trouble, but a hallucinating drug, which he may not have mentioned in his TUE form (Therapeutic Use Exemption),” says the official.

While Dr Sohail Salil, the PCB doctor who has been with the Pakistan national team for a more than two seasons and has personally been involved with players while filling TUE forms and educating them on the list of banned drugs, did not want to comment on the issue, the fact that Asif had been recently detained at the Dubai airport for allegedly possessing opium only adds to the intrigue.

Sources in Pakistan say that the late coach Bob Woolmer had time and again warned Asif not to indulge in illegal drug abuse and a PCB official claims that it is this very habit of Asif that may have put him in trouble. “A lot of cricketers do smoke and some tend to get carried away using these substances,” he said.

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