PCB hits back at Naghmi on Asif

The Pakistan Cricket Board hit back at a former top PCB official Wednesday and accused him of maligning paceman Mohammad Asif in a drug case.

The head of an inquiry committee _ the board’s former chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi _ said Tuesday that Asif was in possession of opium when he was detained in Dubai earlier this year and has recommended the fast bowler be banned and fined.

“The revelation … is a crude attempt to malign a test cricketer and cast aspersions on the current management of the PCB,” the cricket board said in a statement.

In June, on his way home from playing in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, Asif was detained for 19 days in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, after authorities allegedly found a substance containing opium in his wallet at the airport.

Naghmi had said that the new management of the PCB _ headed by Ejaz Butt _ did not ask him to submit the report on Asif.

“(It) appears a cruel joke,” the PCB said. “How could the new management of the PCB know about the existence of such a report?

“It was the moral duty of Naghmi to give charge of everything to a responsible official of the PCB, which he didn’t. A case of sour grapes perhaps.”

The PCB also claimed that an inquiry into the Asif incident has revealed that the investigating committee headed by Naghmi with Zakir Khan and Nadeem Akram as members only met for 15 minutes, during which Asif’s statement was recorded.

“A member of the committee …. Zakir Khan categorically denies the preparation or the making of any such report exhibiting on the part of Mohammad Asif,” the statement said.