In-form Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah was on Sunday provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“The sample Yasir provided in an in-competition test, which was conducted on 13 November 2015, was found to contain the presence of chlortalidone, a Prohibited Substance which appears in Section 5 of the WADA Prohibited List (in the category of Specified Substances),” the ICC said in a release.
“In accordance with the ICC Anti-Doping Code, pending the outcome of the disciplinary process, Yasir has been provisionally suspended.
“The matter will now be dealt with in accordance with the process set down in the Code, and until such time as the process is resolved, the ICC will make no further comment on this matter,” it added.
Pakistan cricket’s chief selector Haroon Rasheed on Sunday said that the provisional suspension slapped on Yasir Shah is a huge setback for the national team ahead of the upcoming New Zealand tour.
“You wake up every day and faced with a new problem in Pakistan cricket. We now have to revise all our plans for the coming events,” Rasheed said.
Meanwhile, a spokesman in the Pakistan Cricket Board made it clear that since ICC was dealing with the Yasir case under the anti-doping regulations, there would be no comments on the
issue.
“As per ICC rules, a process would be followed now but at this time all we know is that he is provisionally banned and is most probably out of the tour to New Zealand,” he said.
A source in the PCB confided that Yasir could face a ban between one to two years as the banned substance he had used was also technically seen as a masking agent.
“Yasir apparently took some medicines for a blood pressure problem but didn’t inform the team doctor or the PCB medical panel, which was a grave mistake,” the source said.
Yasir is currently ranked No.3 on ICC’s list of world’s top-10 Test bowlers and has taken 76 wickets in just 12 Tests since he debuted against Australia in October, 2014.
Pakistan are scheduled to play three T20s and three ODIs in New Zealand next month.
