Will Steyn get banned?

[Briony]

after testing positive to painkillers?

The Press Association: Steyn asked to explain drugs test findings

 

[Athlai]

It isn't even a banned substance?

 

[TT Boy]

It isn't but morphine is. Currently a non-issue.

 

[Athlai]

Certainly not a banning issue though. He was taking an unbanned substance that has been mislabelled by the higher ups, not his fault.

 

[shivfan]

Well, right now the ICC is not yet a signatory to WADA, to drug-testing regulations are not as strict in cricket....

After all, Shoaib Akhtar and Mo Asif got off scotfree after testing positive for nandrolone!

 

[silentstriker]

He won't and he sure as hell shouldn't.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Well, right now the ICC is not yet a signatory to WADA, to drug-testing regulations are not as strict in cricket....

After all, Shoaib Akhtar and Mo Asif got off scotfree after testing positive for nandrolone!

But wasn't that because they were all internal testing, not conducted by WADA? If it had've been during competition, then WADA rules would've held.

 

[zaremba]

Based on that report, it doesn't sound as though there's much to it. However given that the report appears to be based almost exclusively on what the SA team doctor has said, it may be that we're not yet hearing the full story. We'll see.

 

[TT Boy]

Case closed according to CSA. IPL were happy with Steyn's explanation.

 

[zaremba]

Ah, ok.

 

[shivfan]

But wasn't that because they were all internal testing, not conducted by WADA? If it had've been during competition, then WADA rules would've held.

In athletics, swimming and cycling, WADA rules cover drug tests in competition and out of competition.

The ICC operates a far more lax system of drug-testing. For example, if a track athlete had tested positive for morphine as Steyn has apparently done, the matter would not have been closed that quickly.

there would have been a disciplinary committee panel, where Steyn would need to show how the drug got into his system, and if the quantity he had in his body was an acceptable amount, given his reason why it's there. Only then would the case have been dismissed.

WADA would then have looked at the case, and then determine whether the panel made the right decision. If WADA felt that the decision reached was incorrect, they would then appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS).

A similar case is currently going thru that process concerning five Jamaican track athletes....

 

[Richard]

Certainly not a banning issue though. He was taking an unbanned substance that has been mislabelled by the higher ups, not his fault.

Definite possibility that the same thing happened with Shoaib and Asif, but virtually no-one gave them the BOD in that case. Obviously, they're both rank ****s and if they didn't do that then they did do plenty of other things... but still. Treat one as all IMO.

 

[GIMH]

Asif's track record after that suggests it was no accident tbh

 

[zaremba]

Definite possibility that the same thing happened with Shoaib and Asif, but virtually no-one gave them the BOD in that case. Obviously, they're both rank ****s and if they didn't do that then they did do plenty of other things... but still. Treat one as all IMO.

Having seen the details of what they took, and having read the Judgment in the Shoaib / Asif case, I find it very very difficult to accept this. Put it this way - they got a very big B of a very small D.

 

[Richard]

Asif's track record after that suggests it was no accident tbh

Yeah, but his track record since hadn't happened at the time.

 

[GIMH]

Yes, so at the time it may have been reasonable to believe it was accidental, but the events since have dispelled all such theories.

Now re-reading your post you may have just been referring to the way they were treated, which would make more sense, but I can't really tell

 

[Richard]

I was referring to the immediate aftermath of both incidents. Occasionally, someone (like me) would venture the suggestion that inadequate product labelling may have played a part, and the reaction was always roundly "no, don't be so ridiculous, it's clearly all those nasty cheating Pakistanis' own fault" (no names named).

Yet the BOD is all too readily afforded to the SAfrican Steyn.

As I say - couldn't care less about what's been learnt about Asif since, because no-one knew in 2006 that the happenings of 2007 and 2008 were going to happen. People treated Asif and Steyn completely differently, for no good reason.

 

[GIMH]

Okay, that's fair enough if you are simply referring to the time. But I think we can now safely assume that it wasn't the case.

I also think that Akhtar being involved as well may have led to people being more suspicious of Asif at the time