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Shoaib Akhtar, involved in a seemingly losing battle to get a two-year doping ban reversed, will have to fight on another front to prove his innocence as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will investigate charges of misconduct levelled against the disgraced fast bowler by an Indian security official.

A well-placed source in the PCB told this correspondent on Thursday that the Board would do some fact-finding following stunning revelations by Anil Kaul, a former Indian Army colonel, who was Pakistan team’s close protection officer during the ICC Champions Trophy held in India that Shoaib slapped team’s coach Bob Woolmer following an argument in the team bus besides misbehaving with a girl at a discotheque and banging Indian coach Greg Chappell’s hotel room door in Jaipur.

The PCB has officially denied Kaul’s allegations and has added that it will take up the matter with the ICC, asking it to take action against the security officer but the source said the Board’s top brass did have knowledge of Shoaib’s poor behaviour during his brief stay with the Pakistan team ahead of the Champions Trophy last month before Kaul made the allegations.

Kaul’s charges against the 31-year-old Shoaib came during an interview with an Indian TV channel on Wednesday night. The incidents, according to Kaul, happened just two days before Shoaib and fellow pacer Mohammad Asif were suspended and recalled to Pakistan by the PCB after testing positive for banned steroid nandrolone.

Both the bowlers were later banned by a doping tribunal though Asif was given a lighter sentence of one year as compared to Shoaib’s two-year ban. The punishment for Shoaib was the harshest for a doping offence in cricket history and came as a surprise for a vast majority in Pakistan.

Though the PCB officials have time and again asserted that the tribunal that investigated the doping issue was an independent committee, there could have been a link between the lengthy ban slapped on Shoaib to his poor conduct in India.

Shoaib has a history of poor discipline, seldom behaving as a team man during a happening international career that spans over almost ten years.

His career, most people fear, would be over if the two-year doping ban is implemented. Known as the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ for his lightning pace, Shoaib has filed an appeal against the ban and a three-man committee is expected to sit down next week to decide his and Asif’s fate.

The source, however, feared the disclosure of his bad behaviour during Pakistan team’s stay in Jaipur might cause further damage to Shoaib’s case. “The charges against him are pretty serious, I mean you can’t get away with something like slapping your coach in front of the entire team. He will be in further trouble if it all turns out to be true,” said the source.

Though Woolmer has denied the slapping incident he did admit that Shoaib has some disciplinary problems. The source added the PCB Chairman Nasim Ashraf has taken serious notice of this latest scandal and might order an inquiry into the incident.

Nasim, who replaced Shaharyar Khan — a diplomat with a soft corner for the players -, made it clear soon after taking control of national cricket affairs last month that he would never compromise on discipline.

The PCB, in the meantime, would also make sure that Kaul is taken to task for violating a strict secrecy code.
Source:The News