http://www.senore.com/Cricket/David-John-Goodchild-c52940end - Part 2
Nonetheless, the pacer did not lose hope and finally a tribunal that had been setup to review Akhtar’s and Asif’s plea, acquitted them on December 5, 2006.
The committee was headed by Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim and former Pakistani cricketers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haseeb-Ahsan-c62014 and Danish Zaheer.
The committee deemed the entire dope testing procedure to be technically flawed and clarified that the players were oblivious of the fact that there were banned drugs in the supplements that they were using.
It was the committee’s judgment that the PCB had failed to educate the players about the dope testing procedure and had no idea that the supplements that the players were taking could cause the players to be tested positive in a drug test.
However, the PCB decided not to include the tainted duo for the 2007 World Cup in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 because of lack of fitness and form.
However, there were rumours that the two were still under the watchful eye of the anti-doping commission and the PCB, in order to stay away from another drug related controversy, deemed it appropriate not to let Akhtar and Asif play the mega event.
In the year 2007, Akhtar was still not controversy free as he was dropped from the country’s squad for the World Twenty20 Championship, which was held in South Africa, on the basis of lack of match fitness
.
He was also believed to have had a spat with Asif and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sahibzada-Mohammad-Shahid-Khan-Afridi-c87933 in which he hit Asif with a bat. According to the then sources Akhtar had blamed Afridi for the incident but his allegations were rebuffed by Afridi and later Asif as well. Asif clarified that Afridi had nothing to do with the whole incident. According to sources Afridi had jumped in to save Asif.
However, later the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Short-c90107 tempered Akhtar mended all outstanding issues with both his teammates, nonetheless, a PCB inquiry determined that Akhtar was at fault because he had attacked Asif with a bat and hit him on his thigh which had caused some bruising. After these finding he was dropped from the team.
Later that year, he made his comeback in international cricket against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in 2007 which also proved fruitful for him.
Akhtar has also had his stints in the English county cricket, which included some time with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Worcestershire-c866.
The Indian Premier League also saw its share of the Rawalpindi Express as the Kolkata http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Knight-c71599 Riders bought the fastest bowler in the world during the first season of the franchise.
The speedster did not disappoint anyone and just when Kolkata were facing a slump in the tournament, Akhtar lifted their spirits by pulverising http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Delhi-c780 Daredevils in a match where his side had posted a meagre total of 133 runs.
Akhtar, in this game, dismantled the top-order by taking four crucial wickets which helped his side restrict the opposition to 110 runs. However, he did not feature in the remainder of the tournament because of an injury.
In 2010 he was named by the PCB in the 35 probables for the Asia Cup. In http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 by giving a splendid performance against them in a one-day series.
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Continued in Shoaib Akhtar – The rise and fall of a Pakistani legend - Part 3
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